A healing prayer

While doing some yardwork, I noticed a sore in my mouth. A neighbor had been describing a problem he had, and here I was with similar symptoms. As one who had read the Scriptures since childhood, I knew that many in the Bible turned to God, Spirit, in prayer and found healing. So I quietly turned my thought to my heavenly Father in prayer.

Prayer as taught in Christian Science is not pleading with God. It is a deeply felt affirmation that God does not create good and evil, but only good, as we read in the first chapter of Genesis. By turning thought Godward in this way, we usher His goodness into our consciousness and thus into our experience. This flood of goodness destroys the belief in evil and heals sickness.

While still in my garden I acknowledged God's allness, His goodness, and my unity with Him. I denied that matter's so-called laws of contagion could have any power or influence. I felt the holiness of God's presence. I peacefully went about the remainder of the day with no further thought of the sore.

The next morning, however, I was aware of the sore in my mouth again. It seemed even larger, and I felt like crying because I felt my prayer had failed. But with humility and repentance I turned to God in prayer again. This question came immediately to thought: ''Is not God sovereign?''

That was the real issue. What did I believe in? Did I believe that there were two gods - of equal strength? Did I believe that God created both good and evil? No! God is the only creator, and He is good. Understanding and trusting this spiritual truth enabled me to see the tempter - the belief in another power - for what it was: a lie.

When Christ Jesus was tempted by Satan, did he get down on the devil's plane of reasoning? No. He defeated the devil; he did not yield to its suggestions. His encounter with temptation concluded, ''Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.'' The Bible continues, ''Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.'' n1

n1 Matthew 4:10, 11.

I, too, had to completely put behind me the belief in another god, another power. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, ''Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they forsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divine Mind, and abandon their material beliefs.'' n2

n2 Science and Health with Key to the Sciptures, p. 400.

As I turned that morning to God, I felt my prayer being governed by Him, and the healing was complete.

One of the lessons I learned from this healing is that no prayer is ineffective. The sore's reappearance the second day did not mean the first day's prayer was fruitless or wasted. Prayer was bringing about needed healing. When one is weeding in a garden, the first pull sometimes doesn't remove the entire weed, but it loosens and removes some of the root. There is no need for discouragement. All efforts combine to eliminate the weeds completely.

So too with prayer. The prayer of the first day was healing what needed healing that day. Turning to God brought needed changes, needed purifying, allowing the prayer of the second day to get to the root of the problem and complete the healing. As the Bible states, ''God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. . . . And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.'' n3

n3 Gatatians 6:7, 9

Healing in Christian Science is glorious because we find a renewal of affection, a putting off of the old man. We find God and His supreme goodness. DAILY BIBLE VERSE There is no power but of God. Romans 13:1