In the spring of 2001, I began having trouble with my digestive system and natural functions. Nothing seemed to be working properly, and the symptoms and frequent discomfort I was experiencing alarmed me. I have always found healing through the spiritual method of cure explained in Christian Science, and so it was natural for me to turn to God for healing.

After several days, however, with no apparent improvement, I felt I needed help in praying through this difficulty. The Christian Science practitioner I called immediately reassured me that no power could act on its own, independently of God, and disrupt normal functioning. This helped me see that God's opposite, evil—in this case the evil named disease—had no actual existence. It was a false power based on the belief that matter has intelligence.

The practitioner calmed my fears and set me on the right path to healing. She discussed the prayer of thinking as God's child—in other words, of seeing how God thinks of us. He knows only what He has created, which is perfect, spiritual, and harmonious in every way. He did not make disease, nor could His likeness be susceptible to it. He sees only good! A verse from the Bible, "The king's daughter is all glorious within" (Ps. 45:13), inspired me with its acknowledgment of the innate inner purity and perfection of each one of God's children.

Except for my husband, I didn't tell anyone about my situation. I felt supported through prayer to take a stand for normalcy in my daily life. For example, I decided not to change my diet. Instead, I took care to watch my thoughts about food, not giving undue emphasis to possible effects—that food had some sort of power in and of itself to benefit or harm me. This passage from Science and Health was especially helpful: "When we come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error" (p. 368).

During this time, there was no interruption in my regular activities, which included housework, yardwork, caring for my husband, who himself was praying about a physical difficulty, and working on several committees at my church. Sometimes I was invited out for lunch, and I was tempted to decline. But, bolstered by my prayers, I went ahead, and always thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was grateful not to miss out.

Even though I still had bouts of extreme discomfort, and there were no signs of internal adjustments, I was growing in my understanding of God as divine Love. I recognized that in spite of the physical evidence, the fact was that Love was in complete control of my whole being. And I knew that holding my thought to this truth would result in healing.

After working with the practitioner for about six weeks, I felt ready to continue praying on my own. I began to read Science and Health from cover to cover. The first thing each morning, I spent an hour or so in this spiritual study, knowing that God would show me what I needed to know. I would choose an idea, a theme, or a synonym for God (a name that describes an aspect of His infinite, divine nature), and focus on passages discussing these points, underlining them with a colored pencil. Some of the topics I chose were spirituality, relationship to God, faith, understanding, power, Mind, Love, Life.

What I gained from this study was invaluable. I was growing in my understanding that I could never be separated from God, who is Life—I could never be separated from health, from good, from completely harmonious well-being. I gained new insight into this statement: "Fear never stopped being and its action." It continues: "Every function of the real man is governed by the divine Mind. The human mind has no power to kill or to cure, and it has no control over God's man. The divine Mind that made man maintains His own image and likeness" (ibid., p. 151).

Although full healing did not come all at once, during this time I became more focused on feeling God's presence and understanding more of my relationship with Him, than with improving my physical condition. Gradually and steadily, improvement in my condition did take place. I even gained a little weight, which for me was not unwanted, but freeing. I was no longer overly concerned about what I was eating or how much, no longer fixed on the possible negative effects of particular foods or on maintaining a certain weight.

One day after a period of months, I realized that I was completely healed. There was no negative reaction to anything I ate, and the physical discomfort had vanished. My internal functioning was perfectly normal. Consistent prayer had brought complete freedom, and the healing has been permanent.

I am full of gratitude for this experience. It called on me to lean completely on God, to trust Him with all my heart. Sometimes I had wondered if I was ever going to be healed. But I learned to be more patient with myself, as I prayed. I also learned that nothing can control me except God's love. I took a very important spiritual journey.

JOY FERNE
VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADA