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Sunday 27 October 2013

Common threads in the healing work


As I’ve been reading Healing Spiritually again, I’ve noticed something helpful –

a.      the attitude of those praying;

b.      the observations of those trained in the medical field; and

c.      that the motive for prayer must always be spiritual growth. 

a) Attitude:

Page 22:  “The turning point came with the practitioner’s earnest request that I understand myself unreservedly to be the child of God…Consequently I was able to, and had to, cancel out in my thinking (so to speak) the medical diagnosis that I was suffering from an incurable illness.”

Page 27: “The Bible, the textbook, and a dictionary were my constant companions.”

Page 61: “Finally, the steadfast insistence of the practitioner that when I thought of man I was to think of God’s own expression, began to awaken me.  I understood what when I thought of myself I was really thinking of God’s expression of good, not of a senior mortal subject to failing strength and faculties…I was able to make some progress each day in radically changing my view of myself, as well as unscientific concepts of others, which I had unthinkingly clung to for over half a century.”

Page 70: “I was not diligently striving to understand the truths of Christian Science myself, and healing did not come.”

Page 73: “…her unflinching confidence in God’s power to heal…”

Page 81: “Circumstances had now brought me to a point of total humility.  And now I also saw that absolute dedication to this demonstration was needed…I worked specifically to reverse, through prayerful treatment, whatever was predicted or diagnosed.”

Page 87: “I began to glorify God each day…Two errors in my own thought came to the surface during this period of spiritually scientific study.”

Page 91: “I…began really studying Christian Science…The practitioner stuck with me night and day…”

Page 132: “I prayed for everyone, my family and the world…a prayer one knows is answered because of a silent inner assurance…”

Page 153: “Now I began concentrated study.”

Page 159: “…our family, along with a Christian Science practitioner, prayed constantly to see our daughter as God had created her, whole and perfect.”

Page 160: “…I too studied and prayed for many hours each day to destroy the mesmeric suggestion of disease.”

Page 168: “…a childlike acceptance of good as real is not naïve, but powerful and healing.”

b) Comments from some with medical training:

Page 50 & 51: “Through all my nursing education and teaching, I’d seen what makes people sick.  It is not germs and viruses and organisms, but rather such problems as hate, fear, greed, guilt, grief, and an expectation of mental cause and physical effect, which I could see written on people’s bodies.  (I had reached these conclusions long before learning of Christian Science.)…Scientific Christian prayerful treatment goes beyond just healing symptoms.  It gets to the heart of the matter and solves the real problem, which is always mental, and this always leaves me a better person.  In the course of healing, I have grown spiritually.”

Page 110: Medical theory is the product of human thought.  All its reasoning is from effect to cause.  The illness is accepted as real, and then a possible cause is presumed to have resulted in that effect.  This presumption is then accepted as law.  Because sickness is accepted as real, a great deal of fear ensues.  But when you look away from the physical body and reason that perfect God could produce only perfect effect, you feel His presence and power.”

c) Spiritual growth:

Page 65: “This spiritual growth revealed to me that the main error needing to be eliminated was “righteous indignation.”  In the guise of righteousness, indignation can seem very justified; but any indignation is mortal mind and must be ruled out of the human experience…I was learning that victory can come by obeying rules, and I diligently sought out those rules…close scrutiny…strict obedience…”

Page 152: “…I reminded our son that prayerful treatment does not set out primarily to change the physical condition, but to spiritualize thought, and this brings healing…Apparently the fog of lethargy and self-pity had been broken as he sat down by himself and really studied ideas from the Bible and Science and Health…”

Page 155: “A side effect of this healing was that my daughter released the animosity and resentment she had felt toward another student…she became a much happier person.”

 And finally what has to be my favourite quote in the book so far: Page 93: “There is no destructive force in all of God’s kingdom…”  Jer Master, Bombay, India

Julie Swannell

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