We are witnessing today the rise of a multitude of nontraditional and often nonmedical means of curing mental and physical ills. Many of these nontraditional methods have, along with traditional medical practice, been grouped together and designated the "healing arts."
Yet true healing is not possible without knowing God. True worship and spiritual healing are inseparable partners.
Healing demands worship. But being merely a worshiper is not enough. There have been millions who worshiped God who were not healers. Yet in the careers of individuals like Elijah, the disciples and Paul, Mary Baker Eddy, and, of course, Christ Jesus, convincing physical and moral healing resulted from their worship of God. What made their worship so unique?
It was divine enlightenment. Prophet, apostle, and follower of Christ Jesus healed because they understood God more spiritually than others and were more pure in their worship of God. But the enlightenment that came upon them and the purity of their response to God's demands are possible to all. Christ Jesus taught his followers to worship as he did and to heal as he did. Mrs. Eddy's discovery of the Science of Jesus' teaching and healing, Christian Science, establishes the essentials of true worship and demonstrates that only as mankind follows these essentials is real healing of the sick and sinning possible.
What are these essentials?
They begin with a spiritual understanding of God. If we are to understand true worship, we must truly know the God we are to worship. Through the ages, unenlightened and false concepts of God have badly misguided worship, and, what's worse, caused tragic human behavior. Worship of a false concept of the one, true God does not include the healing people need.
What is the true God? The Bible, in its spiritual meaning, overflows with definition and illustration of God. He is the one creator, the heavenly Father, as demonstrated in the marvelous birth of Jesus. God is the divine protector and defender. He saved Daniel from the lions and guided the children of Israel through perilous times. Our God is Love, depicted in many biblical passages as a loving Shepherd caring for His flock.
God is a universal God, who declared Himself to Moses as "I AM THAT I AM."Ex. 3:14; It was this self-declaring God that enlightened Mrs. Eddy and caused her to discover Christian Science and write the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Of the mighty God that empowered her work, Mrs. Eddy writes, "God is infinite, the only Life, substance, Spirit, or Soul, the only intelligence of the universe, including man."Science and Health, p. 330;
The words and works of Christ Jesus and of Christian Science today confirm one final, demonstrable truth: God is the only healer. The healings of Christ Jesus, the healings described in Science and Health, and the present-day testimonies of healing printed in the Christian Science periodicals demonstrate God's redeeming grace. These accounts share a common factor: the individual who was ill was restored when, to some degree, the worship of matter was replaced by worship of the God who is Spirit.
Such a God is worthy of our worship. Indeed, God demands this worship—not partially, but fully—because, in reality, we are His very expression. Wholehearted worship is of itself satisfying and sustaining, but the wonder of God's love for us is that our obedience to Him manifests itself in our day-to-day lives as healing.
What does true worship involve? Observing the Ten Commandments, for a start. Not because we are afraid of the consequences if we don't obey. Not as a ritual, nor because we feel we are better than others when we do obey. But because our obedience is powered by our love for God, and we happily accept the laws He has provided as the fundamentals for purposeful and fulfilling living.
The Commandments pave the way for our obedience to the law of divine Love. Christ Jesus outlined this law in his Sermon on the Mount. In the Beatitudes, he made clear the joy that comes from worshiping God through the law of Love. He used the words "Blessed are they" in fulfillment of the "Thou shalt not" of the Ten Commandments.
The substance of true worship is found wherever the individual man or woman is daily working out—coming to understand—his or her relationship to God. Worship is a spiritual task accomplished by silent working and praying. And the results are evident where they can't be seen—in one's heart and thoughts.
When we become true worshipers, our motives are purified. We do the things that are right because we love what God is and not because we wish others to love us for what we do. Our worship is not, then, superficial but deep and wholesome. Christ Jesus said to the woman at the well, "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him."John 4:23;
How does such spiritual worship heal? It brings a realization of the God who is Love to our thought. As God is recognized as the only one to be worshiped, the things of Spirit begin to predominate in our lives, motives, aspirations, and desires. This helps us overcome anything unlike God. We work to reject sin and sickness, not because we are seeking gain for ourselves but because we love God.
One result of a truer worship is that we can gain a clearer understanding of what Christian Science is. Understanding that Christian Science is pure Christianity, we won't think of it as a mere "healing method." Christianly scientific healing is a natural result of spiritual understanding, whereas material healing methods deal only with matter or with the mortal belief about matter in trying to effect healing. Christian Science is not one of the "healing arts," but the Science of healing itself.
The Bible and Science and Health give the fundamentals of true worship and the spiritual laws of healing. These books become our physician. But the office of physician they assume is not merely an alternative to that of a medical doctor. When we begin worshiping "in spirit and in truth," we won't weigh Christian Science with what we see as another healing alternative. Our reliance on Science will flow joyfully from our love of God. In Science and Health we are told, "Teach the meekness and might of life 'hid with Christ in God,' and there will be no desire for other healing methods."Science and Health, p. 445;
The rewards of true worship are much more than better health or an improved personal situation, as useful as these may be. The real rewards are in increased spirituality. "Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God,"ibid., p. 15. Mrs. Eddy writes. Herein lies the beauty of true worship: we discover that the real substance of everyday existence is not matter but Spirit. We learn that what we love— what we find our happiness and self-worth in—is indeed "hidden from the world" but known to divine Mind and to us as spiritual reality.
