Why choose prayer for healing?
To rely on prayer for healing is not to put ourselves at risk. But we do have to be willing to change how we think about ourselves, our goals, our lives.
When we are sick, why should we pray to God for healing rather than rely on drugs or medical treatment? This can be a stirring question! But we can find an answer that satisfies our specific individual needs and gives us confidence in God.
We know from the Bible that centuries ago people turned to God for healing. Christian healing was lovingly and successfully practiced by Christ Jesus and his disciples.
Jesus never used or recommended the use of drugs for healing. On the contrary, he said, "Pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." Matt. 6:6. Such prayer includes the humble desire to find a better understanding of God and man. We pray to see the spiritual reality of man who, according to the Bible, was created in God's image. See Gen. 1:27 .
When we begin to understand that man in reality always expresses the spiritual qualities of God, the ever-present and supreme good, we become more confident of God's care for us. We discover that healing is the natural result of prayer. With the prophet Jeremiah we can say, "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise." Jer. 17:14.
Consistent prayer increases our faith and trust in God because prayer makes us more conscious of God, who has declared, "I am the Lord that healeth thee." Ex. 15:26.
Obviously it's easier to acknowledge God's loving omnipresence when all is well. It may require much faith, however, to see God's harmony when things become turbulent. That's when prayer is needed most.
Mrs. Eddy includes a whole chapter on prayer in Science and Health. In it, she declares, "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,—a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love." Science and Health, p. 1. Isn't this omnipotence of God a good reason for relying on prayer for healing? No power or claim of sickness can withstand God's power. Doesn't this knowledge make us strong?
In silent communion with God we examine our thoughts. We must reject whatever unhealthy and inharmonious conditions would claim to be part of our experience. We replace them with the spiritual fact that we are God's beloved spiritual children. As we do this, we discern that inharmony and sickness are not part of God's infinite goodness and therefore are not part of our true being as spiritual man, who is never separated from God.
Progressively our fears about our physical body give way to faith, trust, and confidence in God, divine Life and Truth. Inharmony and sickness yield to the truth of man's purity and health. Human misconceptions are replaced with a deeper understanding of God and of our spiritual identity as His offspring.
As we progress in recognizing the divine Mind and Principle of spiritual healing, we may also be comforted in our prayers by claiming the omniscience of God. Divine Science is the only Science that always has been, always is, and always will be perfect and complete, because it is based on divine Mind, God, not on a limited human brain.
Unlike medicine, which doesn't intend to advance one morally or spiritually, each proof of healing through prayer, no matter how small, makes us better people. It regenerates us, reforms us, and helps us progress spiritually because it brings out our real being as children of God. It proves that we cannot be separated from God's love and care.
Spiritual healing is evidence of man's oneness with God. Since there can be only one infinite Mind, all intelligence and true knowledge of man can come only from this divine source. The spiritual reality of divine Mind nullifies the material sense' claims of lack and sickness. And this is another valid reason for turning to prayer for healing. Science and Health, the textbook of spiritual healing, explains, "There can be no healing except by this Mind, however much we trust a drug or any other means towards which human faith or endeavor is directed." Ibid., p. 169.
Such healing is permanent because the underlying healing Principle, God, is permanent.
Healing through prayer in Christian Science is not wishful or so-called positive thinking, which often expresses blind faith, ignoring negative appearances and developments. Instead, prayer opens our eyes to see the reality of God and man, and we joyfully accept the spiritual facts.
In the practice of Christian healing, one doesn't ignore evil, sin, and sickness but strives to see and demonstrate their nothingness before God. Anything outside of God, the infinite good, must be an illusion. This spiritual certainty expels fear and doubt.
One does not require years of study to be healed through prayer. Sometimes a glimpse of spiritual reality results in immediate physical healing.
Prayer helps us to manifest more of our real, perfect self in our present human experience. As we understand the facts of our true being and apply them to specific needs, this spiritual understanding leads us to physical healing. Such healing is permanent because the underlying healing Principle, God, is permanent. Spiritual healing is the natural unfoldment of God's ever-present love, the reflection of divine Principle.
Science and Health shows the spiritual roots of such healing. It says: "The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation. Now, as then, these mighty works are not supernatural, but supremely natural." Ibid., p. xi.
A better grasp of how we can heal through prayer gives us confidence in God's healing presence. Hesitation is replaced by an absolute reliance on God. We reject the lies of the material senses and see their nothingness. We rejoice in knowing our real being, which has been perfect all along. This is prayer that makes a difference. It gives us self-esteem and a consciousness of spiritual identity instead of fear and desperation. It gives us spiritual freedom instead of material dependency.
The answer to the question "Why choose prayer for healing?" may be different for each one of us. But the healing power of the Science of Christ is always the same. It fulfills the needs of individuals through prayer. It makes praying a way of life.
The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and
raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
The eyes of all wait upon thee; and
thou givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest thine hand, and
satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
Psalms 145:14–16
