Quick healing of flu symptoms

About seven years ago, I experienced the powerful healing effect of the Lord’s Prayer. It happened on a day when I had commuted from my home to my office about five hours away. While on the train, I had symptoms of the flu. I did my best to pray, because I’ve found prayer helpful when faced with problems of any kind. But the discomfort was so distracting that it made it difficult for me to think clearly or pray.

When I got off the train at my destination, I was almost in tears as I went to my office building. I tried to accomplish a few things, but soon felt I had to leave and go to my “home away from home” (the nearby apartment of a friend) and rest. My plan was to crawl into bed and sleep all night. I couldn’t wait to get there! At that point it was early evening.

When I reached the apartment, I got into my pajamas and lay down. I was so grateful to be in a quiet place and in the home of my friend. My thought turned to the Lord’s Prayer. I like to pray it in its traditional wording from the King James Version, which begins, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name” (Matthew 6:9).

This brought to mind seven Bible-based synonyms, or names, that Mary Baker Eddy gives for God in the Christian Science textbook: Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, and Mind (see “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 115). I took each one of these names for God and expanded upon it to help me better understand why God’s name is hallowed, that is, “greatly revered and honored,” as one dictionary puts it.

It was effortless; my prayer just flowed for the next 30 to 40 minutes in this way:

- Hallowed be Your name of Love, because as Love, You comfort, protect, nurture, and give compassion.

- Hallowed be Your name of Truth, because as Truth, You show forth all that is divinely true about creation, which is full of all that is honest, sincere, and correct. Truth sets us free.

- Hallowed be Your name of Life, because as Life, You are eternal, life-giving, full of divine good and unrestricted motion.

- Hallowed be Your name of Mind, because as Mind, You know all, and know only good; it follows that as Your children, created in Your image, we are naturally good and able to understand what Mind communicates – to hear and understand Your wisdom and direction.

- Hallowed be Your name of Principle, because as Principle, You govern with divine law, which keeps us in a state of harmony, in line with Your law of good.

- Hallowed be Your name of Soul, because as Soul, You establish all true identity as spiritual, intact, and safe. How can there be pain or discord in divine Soul, Spirit?

- Hallowed be Your name of Spirit, which bathes me in the ever-present light of the Christ – the Truth that Jesus so fully demonstrated – and sets me free.

It was a simple, natural, and effective prayer. My thought became so filled with the hallowed nature of God as all-loving and all-powerful that the illness just left me. Completely. Instead of going to sleep right away, I got up and was active and energetic for the next six hours, and then rested normally and naturally. I have not had a return of those symptoms.

At certain times of the year in the United States, pharmacy doors and roadside billboards notify us that it’s “flu season.” But I’ve found that, actually, whether it’s fall, winter, spring, or summer, one thing remains unchanged: our ability to feel and express our God-given joy and health.

Adapted from a testimony published in the Feb. 24, 2020, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.