Many of us have had healings in Christian Science for which we are very grateful. And I suspect that most of us readily acknowledge that the best part of those healings was the lessons learned, the confidence gained, and the depth of Truth that was revealed. We take a forward step, become more aware of our dominion, and we grow to know God a bit better than before. Difficulties fade into oblivion, but the truths we have uncovered remain to bless us and others as we incorporate these lessons into our daily living.

For example, earlier this year, I became aware of a large hard mass in one side of my breast. All the flags of fear began to flutter, but I’m grateful to say that I was able to immediately squelch the panic, if not the fear, and declare my God-given dominion. After a day or so, I asked a Christian Science practitioner to support me through prayer, and speaking with her brought a wonderful sense of calm. Together we affirmed that nothing could come between me and my Father-Mother God—that I am, always was, and always will be God’s spiritual, perfect idea.

The Christian Science Bible Lesson for that week was titled “Life,” and opened with this Golden Text: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord” (Psalms 118:17). And the Lesson included this statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence” (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 492). Many other citations from that Lesson became a solid foundation for my prayer.

From the study of that Lesson, I felt more assured and competent to stay above any evil suggestions being imposed on me. I felt that I could eradicate from thought every germ of fear, every “what if” that might confuse or confound me. Hour by hour, I was conscious of God’s presence and guidance, and I could feel the enriching benefits of the practitioner’s prayer.

I woke up the next morning with the 91st Psalm uppermost in my thought. Every verse spoke to me of God’s power and dominion even over plagues, lions, dragons, adders, any other “pestilences.” I talked again to the practitioner, and we shared wonderful, comforting truths as we continued our watch.

I had made a conscious effort to avoid examining or touching that hardened area of my body. However, when I moved a certain way, I felt a shaft of pain. Even just my clothes brushing against my body caused a stinging sensation.

Later that day when I was bathing, I couldn’t help noticing an angry red area around the already sensitive part of my body, and it occurred to me that this might be the result of an insect bite. I had been cleaning up brush piles and carrying armloads of dry grasses and pine boughs. Perhaps a spider or some other critter had gotten into my clothes and bitten me.

Words cannot describe the sense of relief I felt—which, of course, reveals the degree of fear I was subduing. But when I called the practitioner with my good news, her response grabbed my attention. She said, “No matter what it was, big or small, it remains a lie.” That was a helpful observation because I realized I had to understand that as a spiritual idea of God I could not be deceived by untruths from any source. However, the mass was still there and painful, and we agreed that more prayer was needed. 

By now I had moved on to the following week’s Bible Lesson, titled “Truth,” in which the focus was on witnessing. I thought of Moses and how he witnessed the rod turn into a serpent and back to a staff on which to lean; how he watched his hand grow leprous and then return to its normal condition (see Exodus, chap. 4). This revealed to Moses the mental nature of everything, the illusive nature of matter, and God’s dominion over all. 

Then it dawned on me that I was inadvertently exchanging, oh so willingly, the fear of a dread disease for the acceptance of a poisonous insect bite. The practitioner’s words, “It remains a lie,” came back to me. It was her way of saying that we don’t accommodate, sympathize, resign, admit to, or give in to evil, no matter what form it takes. Yet I was doing just that—being relieved. I was letting the “lesser lie” have its way.

Nothing could come between me and my Father-Mother God.

The Lesson on Truth included this citation from Science and Health: “Truth bestows no pardon upon error, but wipes it out in the most effectual manner” (p. 11). Again, I realized that’s what I was doing—granting error a pardon for being just a little lie. There is no pardon just because the error seems less severe than feared. It’s still a deceiver, and must be eradicated by Truth. 

That Bible Lesson also included the account of the man by the pool of Bethesda whom Jesus healed instantly after the man had been waiting for healing for 38 years. So, I reasoned, was I just sitting around waiting for the waters to move? Was I content to let nature take its course? Does God sometimes lift us just halfway up?

As I continued to study and pray, I learned encouraging lessons, I made progress each day, and I began to feel I was a more reliable witness. As Science and Health puts it: “When you silence the witness against your plea, you destroy the evidence, for the disease disappears” (p. 417).

Gradually, I overcame many fearful suggestions, including concern over the physical evidence, fear, hopelessness, and feelings of inadequacy. The discomfort didn’t immediately abate, though there was clear evidence of change.

By this time, I was studying the Lesson titled “Love,” which included many wonderful citations, including, “Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you” (Science and Health, p. 571). I reasoned that I could regard venom as just another word for hate. In the armor of Love, I was impervious to any poisonous sting. The Apostle Paul shook off the viper unharmed, and so could I (see Acts 28:3–6). 

The next day I was happy to report to the practitioner that the inflamed area had opened and drained, and was healing over. The pain had gone, and so had the fear. I had proved that a spiritual idea cannot be pierced, poisoned, or contaminated; a spiritual idea is immune to anything unlike good.

From the very beginning, and all through this healing experience, the statement, “A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive,” became the bedrock of my prayer (Science and Health, p. 463).

Would healing have occurred just by nature taking its course? Perhaps. But having experienced a number of bites and stings in the past, I knew nature’s time was long past, and the magnitude of the infection was increasing. However, when I came to the point in prayer where fear of the physical evidence had dissolved, the infection cleared completely overnight.

Not only was I grateful for my healing and for the many lessons I learned in the process, but I was also pleased to be a witness to the fact that there is healing in every one of the Bible Lessons published in the Christian Science Quarterly.