A tradition of spiritual healing

If you are looking to God for healing of a physical illness or some other difficulty, you should not feel alone. There is a long tradition of spiritual healing, of turning prayerfully and entirely to God for the resolution of problems.

Time and time again in the Bible, God's saving love was experienced in protection, in the healing of disease, in the overcoming of lack or moral weakness. Challenges were repeatedly resolved with spiritual solutions.

The Psalmist affirmed: ''God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea . . . . The Lord of hosts is with us.'' n1

n1 Psalms 46:1, 2, 7.

And several centuries later a New Testament writer recorded that Jesus' disciples ''went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.'' n2

n2 Luke 9:6.

A few centuries after Jesus' ascension the tradition of spiritual healing was essentially lost sight of. But in the mid-nineteenth century it was restored and nurtured through the discovery of Christian Science by Mary Baker Eddy. This was the first major opening of thought to the practicality of spiritual healing since the third century a.d. Mrs. Eddy established the Church of Christ, Scientist - ''a church designed,'' as she put it, ''to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing.'' n3 She writes elsewhere, ''Truth casts out error now as surely as it did nineteen centuries ago.'' n4

n3 Manual of The Mother Church p. 17.

n4 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 495.

Clearly, there has been no interruption or termination of God's infinite care for man. God is unchanging. As we understand that every type of problem can be healed through God's power, and then trust that power as others have trusted before us, we'll have a part in the practicality of spiritual healing.

This tradition is still active today. Testimonies of healing are spontaneously given each Wednesday evening in Christian Science churches around the world. Weekly, monthly, and quarterly periodicals, published by the Church of Christ, Scientist, contain well-documented accounts of healing.

A friend of mine discovered how an acceptance of the concept of spiritual healing could bring practical results. While working in the kitchen, she inadvertently dropped a pan of boiling wax on her bare feet. Her immediate thought was, ''How many times have I read and heard testimonies by Christian Scientists explaining how they were healed of accidents and burns in the kitchen!'' This was more than an idle recollection. It amounted to a solid affirmation of God's power to free her from all pain and fear. She knew that God had not caused an accident and that she was always, and only, subject to what God causes - perpetual harmony. For a number of years she had been striving to trust God more and more. So it was quite natural in this moment of need to turn to Him for healing. She was completely sure that the same God who had blessed and healed those who had had similar experiences, was governing her at that very moment.

She felt no pain. With deep gratitude to God she sat down and peeled the wax from her feet. There was no trace of an accident. She had become a part of the tradition of spiritual healing.

When we reach out to God with a humble and confident heart, we too can expect protection and healing. The task is to reject the discouragement and fear that would prevent us from seeking spiritual help in the first place. This can best be accomplished by drawing closer to the great Physician each day. We can regularly acknowledge that man belongs to God, Spirit, and is not at the mercy of materiality or chance. We can realize that our actual, God-created being is totally spiritual, the indestructible manifestation of Spirit; that we truly live under the government of perfect, divine Love and are not subject to injury or accident.

As we do this, we'll regularly participate in the long tradition of spiritual healing, a tradition that provides convincing evidence of God's ever-restoring love. DAILY BIBLE VERSE He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also. John 14:12