Bout with the devil

It seemed to stand there belligerently, that headache, and announce, "I'm here. Now, what are you going to do about it?" I had given in so many times before. But not this morning! I had a busy day ahead. I didn't have time for a headache.

In Christian Science the justification for standing firm in the face of inharmony is the fact that God is All-in-all; that man expresses Him -- divine Life, Love, Truth. Fear a headache? I would not, for with God as my only source of strength and health, with my true nature expressing Him in spiritual perfection, there could be no other real power in my life but good. The all-good God, not aggressive material sensation, was my authority.

All of us can avail ourselves of the Christ-power to demonstrate our sonship with God. We are not alone, drifting helplessly among matter's whims and foibles. The man of God's image is at one with his Maker, the Principle that governs all creation in harmony.

Christ Jesus faced this problem of dealing with aggressive evil. The Bible records that he once encountered the temptations of evil in the wilderness. The devil "brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence." n1 Evil did not have the power to push, only suggest. And Jesus resisted with the strength of God's Word.

n1 Luke 4:9;

After pondering this account of Jesus' resistance to the temptations, I found strength welling up within me. I refused to be pushed into this belief of a headache. Matter can never actually think or feel. All true consciousness and Life are of God. I would stand firm on my pinnacle -- my faith in divine Truth -- and resist. This error had no mind of its own or basis from which to proceed. It wasn't going anywhere. It had no time schedule or future.

How often I had turned to Mary Baker Eddy's n2 words, "Unless you fully perceive that you are the child of God, hence perfect, you have no Principle to demonstrate and no rule for its demonstration." n3 I was not petitioning God to take the ache away but striving to understand and live my native identity, already in God's image, completely whole and free. I had my God-given dominion.

n2 Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science;

n3 The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,m p. 242.

The pain began to weaken; it was no longer demanding. I was the one in control, realizing my selfhood as at one with God. I was not a pitiful mortal, nor was I ever separate from God.

The pain stopped. It was a beautiful day, and on a pinnacle of exuberance I almost shouted, "I'm free!" DAILY BIB LE VERSE Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6:11