Define Yourself - Spiritually
Bringing a spiritual perspective to daily life
How well I remember the time I missed out on a family trip to see a Broadway play - because I was sick. Illness interrupts happiness and freedom. When all else is going well, it seems, suddenly there we are, missing something special because we're not feeling well. It just isn't fair.
Indeed it isn't fair! God never sends and does not permit trouble of any kind, including disease. This is an unmistakable biblical message.
Later in my life I discovered how to enjoy consistent good health, freedom, and joy, through understanding true spirituality. I learned about my spiritual identity as the loved child of God. Every one of us can make this discovery. We can learn to define ourselves spiritually (not materially) as the image and likeness of God, who is Spirit. We can prove the freedom that comes with this understanding. We can find ourselves healed of illness, secure and loved by God.
As is true of many other people, consistently studying the Bible has shown me my spiritual identity and brought healing. I also regularly study "Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy. As its title implies, this book unlocks the spiritual treasures of the Bible. The truth it reveals makes Christian healing - healing as Christ Jesus practiced it - understandable and accessible to all.
In the last chapter of Science and Health, I found 100 pages of firsthand accounts of healings that were brought about by reading the book. These involved such conditions as eye trouble, deafness, cancer, kidney disease, tuberculosis, headaches, and broken bones.
The pages of Science and Health describe how to heal and be healed through understanding and applying the law of God. This is the law of spiritual being. On page 475 I found the unique explanation of man (generic man, meaning all men, women, and children) as entirely spiritual, entirely of God. This states, in part, that we are "spiritual and perfect," include "all right ideas," and are "not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements." It boldly asserts that "man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death."
Yes, because we are the image, the likeness, of Spirit, you and I are truly incapable of disease. It doesn't always appear as such. But a material condition cannot reach or touch that which is spiritual. The two are utterly incompatible. The spiritual and God-created is the real. The material is not of God; the material is fleeting, powerless, illusory. We don't actually have both a material and a spiritual identity, but only a spiritual one, since God is omnipotent and does not create or empower matter. This is what Jesus taught.
Essential to our ability to prove our wholeness and freedom from all suffering is a clear understanding of our relation to God. This brings a mental awakening, which destroys the belief that God made evil. In this way, conditions of suffering are destroyed. We come to know freedom when we learn our true identity to be of God's creating. What He creates is always loved, always pure, always whole, always reflecting His strength and perfection. Finding health means leaving sickness; we make this mental departure by seeking the facts of our spiritual being. Then we can expect to find wholeness and wellness in our human lives.
Obedience to God is essential to finding this well-being. God's law demands that we learn to truly love our neighbor and all humanity. Hatred, resentment, envy, jealousy, and revenge will never bring us into God's realm of infinite love. But the step-by-step, day-by-day living of love can be found to be natural to us.
Through the years I've depended entirely on God for my health. Every physical problem has been healed through prayer and reliance on God alone. I've yet to hear of any health care that is more reliable, harmless, or affordable than God's care, or that is as instructive in teaching the truth and bringing lasting peace and joy.
It's quite an adventure to define oneself spiritually and to rely entirely on prayer for healing; but here is a practical means for finding every good thing in life and for helping others along the way. The adventure is ongoing, and the rewards are great. And everyone is welcome to come along!