Relying on God for healing

Those who accept the truths of the Bible realize the importance of trusting God. The ninety-first Psalm states, ''I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.''n1

n1 Psalms 91:2.

Countless numbers have relied on God for strength, guidance, inspiration. But fewer have been willing to trust God to preserve their health. Why? Because most people have been educated to think of health as related to matter and as therefore restorable only through material means.

But human thought is changing. For more than a century now, people have been proving through Christian Science that physical health can be maintained or restored by seeing that one's true identity is made in the image of God, as the Bible states, and hence is perfect.

To rely on God requires that we know Him better - as divine Mind, ever-present Truth, eternal Life, creating and governing all in perfect harmony. And we need to perceive man as actually spiritual and perfect. This truth of man , understood, operates as divine law, revealing our pure wholeness and destroying the falsity called sickness. Christ Jesus said, ''Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.''n2

n2 John 8:32.

Understanding God, we'll turn to Him promptly if sickness appears, and endeavor to discern the facts of being: that man is the image of God and is therefore fearless; that he cannot be subject to sickness because God maintains his exemption from all evil; that sickness is an illusion because divine Mind -- infinite good -- has all power. Such truths, realized and deeply felt, constitute effective prayer and bring healing.

Our reliance needs to be wholly on God. Any attempt to depend both on Him and on material means can't really succeed, for we would be trying to go in two opposite directions at once, dividing our allegiance between Spirit and matter.

The value of relying totally on God was illustrated by an experience of a young man in college. He had a painfully sore throat and, as a fairly new student of Christian Science, he endeavored to heal the condition through prayer to God. When the healing was not immediate, his reliance began to weaken, and he was tempted to visit the college infirmary to obtain something to relieve the pain. He finally yielded, and reluctantly got some medication to be gargled. But as he walked to his dormitory his trust in God returned, and he knew he would never use this medication or any other -- and he didn't.

Then he concluded that if his understanding of God was not, as yet, sufficient to heal him, he should heed this instruction given by Mary Baker Eddy n3: ''If students do not readily heal themselves, they should early call an experienced Christian Scientist to aid them. If they are unwilling to do this for themselves, they need only to know that error cannot produce this unnatural reluctance.''n4 So he visited a Christian Science practitioner whose name he found listed in The Christian Science Journal, a monthly publication of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. He requested her help through prayer.

n3 Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.

n4 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 420.

In their talk, the practitioner stressed the need to fearlessly rely on God, to know that His power is supreme and adequate to heal any situation. She reminded him that his true being, as God's image, is perfect, exempt from disease and pain. She explained that healing occurs by realizing God's ever-presence and divine goodness.

Then the practitioner spent some time in silent prayer, denying reality to evil, realizing the omnipotence of God, and declaring the divine fact that God, Truth, by the very nature of His allness, destroys whatever is contrary to good. On his way home the young man found to his delight that he was healed. The throat difficulty had completely disappeared.

Relying on God is a very happy, natural thing to do. As we draw closer to Him and trust Him more, there is no limit to the good that results, both in physical healing and in one's progress Godward. DAILY BIBLE VERSE The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up James 5:15