Spiritual law -- you can count on it

IN a break between sets of a televised tennis match, the play-by-play announcers, both former tennis champions, commented on the superb conditioning of the contestants. Discussing athletic conditioning, they remarked that formerly certain foods were considered inadvisable before a match but that currently those same foods were highly recommended in the same circumstances -- or maybe it was the other way round. In any case, their remarks made an impression. My husband and I were interested to hear that beliefs about what was beneficial had been totally reversed. It isn't difficult to recognize the un-dependability of materially-based health laws, which are subject to change because based on the fluctuating conditions of matter. Through Christian Science, however, we've been learning that spiritual law, which comes from God, divine Principle, is permanent and totally good. The Bible tells us that God is changeless and eternal. He is the supreme power and intelligence and the only lawgiver. God is good and God is Love. Consequently His laws reflect goodness, mercy, justice.

We read in Psalms, ``The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.''1

Christian Science encourages people to learn more about immutable divine law, which will open our eyes to wider, more dependable opportunities for improving human existence. God's law decrees man's likeness to his creator, the ever-present Father. God sustains His image and likeness, maintaining his health and harmony. This spiritual reality may seem distant, unrelated to our current experience. But in fact it's extremely relevant to our everyday lives. To glimpse the truth of our being as God's image is to see something of that truth expressed in our lives, perhaps in better health or in increased capabilities.

Perhaps we've never before thought of turning to God for well-being, or maybe we've lost sight of our unchangeable, divine source of strength and freedom. Maybe we've depended on material laws of health and through faith in them we've received some physical benefits. But material law also embraces sin, sickness, accident, and so on, because it's based on the false conviction that life and intelligence are essentially material and that man is a mere mortal, subject to physical forces outside his control. It may seem that this is the case. Yet if God is good and has made man in His image, our true being is safe in His care, indestructible in Spirit, and we can call upon the power of divine law in prayer in order to prove something of this truth in healing.

We don't have to be victims. We can learn what is really law. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says, ``The only fact concerning any material concept is, that it is neither scientific nor eternal, but subject to change and dissolution.''2 And she says elsewhere, ``Belief is changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.''3

I've turned to divine law for direction and protection in my activities. One day I innocently came into contact with poison oak. Material law says that contact with that plant can cause swelling, fever, rashes, and other discomforts. I accepted that verdict and had a severe case of poisoning. Hardly the proper conditioning for someone planning to play in a little tournament in a few days, as I was.

A Christian Science practitioner helped me to consider my exemption from matter's false, changeable, discord-supporting laws. Together, we prayed to understand my freedom, purity, strength, and harmony under divine law. We denied the supposed validity of material laws, knowing that they had no effect on my true being as the perfect, spiritual image of God. In reality, God's law was the only one operating, and it was continuing, forever, to sustain me.

By the day of the tournament I was healed. I participated in the matches at my usual level of play.

Paul said, ``Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.''4 Actually, I can't remember who won that tennis round robin. But I had had a victory, through spiritual law, and I was grateful.

1Psalms 19:7, 8. 2Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 297. 3Ibid., p. 96. 4I Corinthians 15:57. DAILY BIBLE VERSE: Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. Jeremiah 17:14