PROTECTION FROM MALARIA

Beverly Goldsmith

I had accepted a job in a Southeast Asian country that involved extensive traveling in remote jungle areas. On arrival there our group was informed that malaria was prevalent. We were issued pills and instructed to take them each day to protect ourselves from this disease.

While the others were happy to employ the medication, I was used to relying on the laws and the love of God to care for my health, so I had a choice to make. One option was simply to accept the notion that a tablet was needed to protect me from this disease. The other was to trust wholeheartedly in God's allness and goodness as my health preserver, keeping me well.

In praying I found this statement in Science and Health very helpful: "The history of Christianity furnishes sublime proofs of the supporting influence and protecting power bestowed on man by his heavenly Father, omnipotent Mind, who gives man faith and understanding whereby to defend himself, not only from temptation, but from bodily suffering" (p. 387).

The potency of this statement reminded me that right there and then I could quell any feelings of alarm and be at peace. I was not alone. I could never be separated from divine Mind's protecting power. I wasn't cut off from the source of my health. I had Spirit's strength and might to depend on. As God wasn't in danger, I knew that as His image I couldn't be either. In the universe of Love's creating there isn't a single thing that is harmful to anyone.

With my faith in God nenewed and reaffirmed, I decided not to take the pills and to trust God to care for me. I prayed often with the ninety-first Psalm. "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling" (Ps.91:9, 10). This strong declaration of God's law encouraged me to trust wholeheartedly in His omnipotence. Whenever I was tempted to think that I was in an unsafe environment, I affirmed that I dwelt securely with my heavenly Father, My well-being was not therefore threatened. I was exempt from disease and danger. As a result of placing absolute trust in God, I did not contract malaria nor has there been any evidence of it in the years since.

There is no way that an all-loving, all-powerful Father would ever send sickness or allow us to become ill. God made us well and He keeps us this way.

Beverly Goldsmith
Clontarf, Queensland, Australia

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