God's Word: Immediately Effective

SEVERAL months ago I woke one morning unable to move my arm at the shoulder without a great deal of pain. The inconvenience, to say nothing of the discomfort, was so great I saw I needed something effective to bring immediate relief. Because of Mary Baker Eddy's discovery, over a century ago, that there was a scientific law behind Jesus' healings, and because the understanding of that law has been made available to us all in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, I was confident that help was literally within reach.

The Bible has a passage in Hebrews that speaks of the vitality-- the ``aliveness''--and powerful effectiveness of God's Word. It tells us: ``The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart'' (4:12).

I could see that God's Word could reach every aspect of my being, and there was nothing in me that could resist His power. How could a shoulder joint remain painfully immobilized in the face of the quickening and invigorating power of God, divine Spirit? Christ Jesus said, John's Gospel records, ``It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life'' (6:63). Jesus' words are powerful. They not only heal but have set lives in radical new directions in his time and ever since. He spoke God's Word for all mankind.

Mrs. Eddy, the Founder of the Christian Science Church, says of Jesus in Science and Health: ``Understanding the nothingness of material things, he spoke of flesh and Spirit as the two opposites,--as error and Truth, not contributing in any way to each other's happiness and existence'' (p. 356). Jesus understood the divine reality so clearly that he could see through matter's false claim to be real and causative and could demonstrate by healing that the Word of God is the activity of ever-present good controlling every aspect of existence. His God-controlled, God-centered, God-inspired thought replaced limited, mortal belief with the light of the Word. And his healing power illustrated the effects of living our lives in the light of God's Word.

Because I knew that this condition could be healed by prayer, I listened for God's direction. What was the truth needed here? What the joints in my arm appeared to be doing or, in this case, not doing was not the issue. It was my right as a perfect, complete, and wholly spiritual child of God to express unimpaired movement. That verse from Hebrews came to thought, comforting me and assuring me that God's complete control over my being reached even to ``the joints and marrow.'' The immobility and pain began to disappear right then.

This was indeed Christ bringing healing and comfort. And as I continued to reason prayerfully, the shoulder became increasingly free. In a few days it was perfectly normal and has remained so.

The Bible is the greatest treasure the world has. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures illuminates its meaning so that we may go to its limitless riches with confidence in the Word and find guidance, inspiration, wisdom, healing--and freedom of movement.

By the word of the Lord

were the heavens made..

He gathereth the waters of the sea

together as an heap:

he layeth up the depth

in storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the Lord:

let all the inhabitants of the world

stand in awe of him.

For he spake, and it was done;

he commanded, and it stood fast.

Psalms 33:6-9