Is prayer enough in an emergency?
One evening I found my husband collapsed on our bed with severe chest pain. The condition appeared serious and called for immediate aid.
Although my husband had been a certified Emergency Medical Technician for many years, he didn’t want me to call 911. I am a Christian Scientist, so I asked if he wanted me to contact a Christian Science practitioner to pray for him, and he said yes.
The practitioner assured me that she would pray immediately, and that there was no valid power opposed to divine Love, God, which fills all space. This dovetailed perfectly with something I’d read earlier from the groundbreaking book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy: “The power of Christian Science and divine Love is omnipotent. It is indeed adequate to unclasp the hold and to destroy disease, sin, and death” (p. 412).
For many years my husband and I had experienced the power of God to heal, even in extreme circumstances. The Bible assures us that God is an ever-present, all-powerful help in every case.
As I sat by my husband’s side, I gently reminded him of God’s all-powerful presence and love, fully able to heal him. Prayer may sometimes seem like a feeble aid in a life-threatening situation, but becoming quiet and listening for God’s healing messages can truly have a dramatic effect. Prayer in its truest sense is communing with God. It evokes a power far beyond human ways and means. It quiets fear and enables us to discern the Christ, Truth, which shines in everyone’s consciousness. I trusted that God would reveal the healing truth that Christ Jesus said would “make [us] free” (John 8:32).
“Life” is another Bible-based name for God, and is therefore spiritual and eternal. Science and Health states, “Every law of matter or the body, supposed to govern man, is rendered null and void by the law of Life, God” (pp. 380-381). Nothing can annul, overthrow, or destroy God’s creation – which includes all of us in our true, spiritual nature as God’s children.
To me this meant that the law of Life was operating right there on my husband’s behalf. Evil and disease spring from the erroneous belief that life is in matter. But God, Spirit, is the only Life, the only genuine cause. Science and Health teaches, “Man is, and forever has been, God’s reflection” (p. 471). Since God is Life and is eternal, man – each of us – as the reflection, or image, of Life, can never be terminated.
As I prayed with these ideas, it was clear to me that my husband could never be separated from his eternal life in God. In the moment I realized this, my husband shivered. I asked if he was cold. He said that he wasn’t, but that he had just felt something stir in him. Then he opened his eyes and said with quiet awe, “I feel like I just woke up from a bad dream. The pain is all gone.” Not only was he pain-free, but he felt rejuvenated and rested.
We rejoiced together and gave gratitude to God for this healing, which has remained permanent in the two and a half years since. We also were thankful for the practitioner, who had been ready to immediately respond with consecrated prayer.
How can healing such as this happen so quickly and simply? The spiritual fact that God is Life and is pouring forth health and wholeness is already completely true. It doesn’t take time for healing to happen, any more than the law of gravity takes time to go into effect. Prayer empowers us to understand this – to spiritually discern the healing truth of indestructible life in God, which is actively and universally in operation right here and now.
It’s comforting to know that God’s healing power is always present, is a definitive source of help when an emergency arises. As Science and Health puts it, “Divinity is always ready. Semper paratus is Truth’s motto” (p. 458). Truth’s response is something we can always count on!
