The recipe for healing
Imagine rummaging through your grandmother’s forgotten papers and finding the recipe for her incredible chocolate chip cookies. Even though the recipe is over 75 years old, could you still make her delectable treats? Of course you could! All you would have to do is carefully implement her scrawled instructions.
It’s worth asking ourselves a similar question as it relates to the abundance of healing work we read about in the Bible. Is it still possible today? The discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” “The Bible contains the recipe for all healing” (p. 406). Even though this recipe within the Bible is centuries old, countless healings since the discovery of Christian Science have made it clear that healing is still as demonstrable today as it was then. Science and Health elucidates and explains how to follow the Bible’s recipe for healing and therefore bring about good results.
However, it’s not enough just to read and memorize passages from these two books. Memorizing my grandmother’s recipe would not produce delicious cookies. Instead, I must learn how to put the ideas into practice by living them – letting them transform my thinking and actions.
And just as we couldn’t pick and choose which ingredients to include in our grandmother’s recipe, and still expect to create the same delicious cookies, we must carefully follow the framework for healing that the Bible presents, and which Science and Health explains.
When I am praying, there are some ideas from the Bible that I always consider. One of them is a message constantly repeated throughout the Bible: “Do not be afraid” (John 14:27, New International Version). Another idea I always remind myself of is that “God is love” (I John 4:8). Feeling that God’s divine, perfect love is the only presence and power eradicates fear, and this is foundational to spiritual healing. Science and Health states: “Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear of patients. Silently reassure them as to their exemption from disease and danger” (p. 411).
Whether I am praying for myself or others, I always start by eliminating my own fear. I pray to become very still in thought and to feel God’s infinite love for me and for everyone. I acknowledge that God is always present to guide and guard me and everyone. I recognize that God is all-powerful and is showing me what I need to know every moment. Then I listen carefully, trustingly, and follow whatever illuminating inspiration I receive.
The spiritual understanding derived from my study, discernment, and application of the spiritual laws in the Bible has enabled me to pray confidently when challenges arise. For example, several years ago I had a problem with my leg that made it difficult for me to walk, and the issue didn’t yield immediately to my prayers.
Jesus said that God always knows what we need (see Matthew 6:8). At one point I was inspired to think about the various commitments and relationships in my life and humbly ask, “God, what do I need to let go of? What am I holding on to that needs to be released?”
The answer quickly came: I needed to change my concept of a relationship in which I was feeling responsible for the well-being of another. I was feeling a limited, personal, possessive sense of love for this individual.
Instead, I knew that I needed to recognize God as the source of her being and well-being. I prayed for humility, considering Jesus’ words in John’s Gospel, “I can of mine own self do nothing” (5:30). This prayer for humility helped me realize more clearly that I reflect rather than create Love. God’s love is infinite.
Understanding that I reflect divine Love, God, led me to know and feel that the individual had her own direct connection to God, and that I am not responsible for her – God is. I could trust that to lead me to respond to her in the most helpful way.
With that realization, the leg problem immediately vanished. I had relied on a spiritual understanding of God, and this led me to stop holding to an erroneous concept of myself (and the person I was helping).
This is one of many proofs I have had that the recipe for healing still works! As we search the Bible and gain a more spiritual sense of its teachings, we can rejoice that healing is possible in our experience right now.
Some more great ideas! To read or listen to an article in The Christian Science Journal on “The promise of newness,” please click through to www.JSH-Online.com. There is no paywall for this content.
