Many healings in Christian Science are quickly accomplished, and this is as it should be. But sometimes a healing is delayed. Despite one's sincere effort to demonstrate the truths of this Science, the problem is not met at once. What should one do then?

We need to recognize that the understanding of divine Principle, God, is adequate to resolve any problem. If a healing is delayed, it means that more understanding of this Principle is required in order to bring about the cure. When we realize that God always supports His children, it is divinely natural for us to continue to gain an ever-unfolding perception of the truth that heals.

We need to know God better, to realize that He is omniscient Mind, all-encompassing Love, causative Principle. He alone has all power and creative ability. He is the only cause, lawgiver, and controller. He governs all in perfect harmony.

Our clear perception of God naturally leads to a clearer understanding of man as His image, reflection, or expression. This man—the true identity of you and me—is necessarily spiritual, immortal, eternal, exempt from evil of any kind, immune from every phase of error. As we grasp these fundamental truths, we can more readily see that evil—all that is opposed to good, God, and His perfect creation—can have no source and must be powerless and unreal.

These are basic truths we need in order to heal. But we may say, "I am familiar with these truths. I have declared them, but the healing hasn't come. What do I do now?" Now is the time to work and pray persistently to gain the spiritual sense, which discerns the presence and power of God and discloses the nothingness of evil. Mrs. Eddy declares: "There is no excellence without labor: and the time to work, is now. Only by persistent, unremitting, straightforward toil; by turning neither to the right nor to the left, seeking no other pursuit or pleasure than that which cometh from God, can you win and wear the crown of the faithful." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 340;}

In our struggle to draw closer to God there may seem to be a negative influence (referred to in Christian Science as mortal mind) attempting to delay or stop our work. Its obstructing arguments are many. It whispers, "You are too busy and don't have the time to study. You don't know enough. You can't concentrate. You get sleepy. You can't resist the distraction of other things."

As we see these arguments for what they are—evil resisting its own destruction—and recognize they are powerless because not of God, we will succeed in negating them. Divine Love is always at hand to give us the strength and singleness of purpose to do what we should do.

Christ Jesus knew the value of persistence. He spent forty days and nights in the wilderness prior to his victory over the temptations of evil. When his disciples failed to heal the epileptic boy, he pointed out to them the importance of faith: "This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." ^{Matt. 17:21.} Persistence was apparent when just before his resurrection he spent three days in the sepulcher proving life to be deathless. Jesus is the Way-shower; we need to emulate him.

In our efforts to gain deeper understanding of the great I am, we will find it helpful to ponder the great truths of being persistently. As we steadfastly work to discern more and more distinctly the all-power and all-presence of Love, our thought will be exalted. We will find it natural to see ourselves as children of God, under His care. And we will better comprehend the spurious nature of mortal mind and what it claims about us. Strengthened by these clearer views, we can reduce our belief in error to nothing with the facts of real being, and we will be healed.

This may take a short time or a longer time, but it's what we learn through the healing that counts. The advancing student is coming to see that God knows nothing about time or delay; they are illusive mortal concepts, and they need to be stripped of power through the growing understanding that reality is eternal, entirely apart from time. God's man is never the victim of time.

Sometimes a person who is struggling with a physical problem learns of a healing in Christian Science that was accomplished after a protracted period (possibly months or even years) of persistent prayer. He mourns, "Is it going to take me that long?" This, of course, is not a helpful view. It makes a reality of time and introduces the fear that the healing will be postponed. It is far wiser to realize and declare that our true identity is eternally Life's idea and is perfect and whole now, completely independent of time or age.

Persistence itself does not heal, but the understanding of man as Love's perfect idea, gained through persistence, does. It is not wise to continue endless metaphysical reading without pondering and putting into practice the truth. The need is always to awaken spiritually. This is the divine way to gain freedom from suffering.

If healing seems delayed, we should take courage, remembering that Love is ever at hand to enable us to gain the perception of truth we need in order to prove our present perfection as a child of God. The persistence called for is ours now as Love's gift. We can accept it, and use it.