Have we ever felt uninspired, ineffectual, or doubtful about our ability to heal? Then we need to discover just who is doing the healing.
In the Old Testament we read, "I am the Lord that healeth thee."Ex. 15:26. In the New Testament, when some of the Jews accuse Christ Jesus of making himself equal to God, Jesus responds by saying, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do."John 5:19.Jesus knew no self doubt in healing, because he realized that healing was essentially a witnessing to the all presence of divine Love. He made clear that the source of the healing ability is divine, not human. Therefore, Jesus shows us the way to rid ourselves of self-doubt in healing because he demonstrated that it is, in fact, God who heals.
Jesus vividly knew himself to be the Son of God. He knew the Christ, the divine presence, to be always at hand. The Christ appears as true ideas coming to us as spiritual inspiration. If we have a stiff neck, the Christ might appear in such a specific way as the realization that man is incapable of inflexibility. The more we respond to the Christ's insistence that man is the reflection of Love, the more we will move with resilience, and flow with kindness and understanding. Living in reality as Soul's ideas, we are mobile, free, and supple. Such thoughts dawn as the Christ presence fills our consciousness with truths that push aside the suggestion of tightness. There is no mortal determination involved here. Christ-filled consciousness reveals the impossibility of anything unlike God.
Knowing God to be the source of all healing, Jesus leaned with security on this all powerful presence. On whom do we lean? Is healing a Herculean task to undertake, or a humble surrender to and reliance on God? Can we get the finite human "self" and its inherent doubtfulness out of the way?
The only self that can be doubted, and should be, is the belief in a self apart from God. This is an inadequate, illusory self because its seeming origin is "outside" the realm of Mind's allness. Any intelligence, perception, or love we express can be ours only as the reflection of God. This is why we can be called the children of God. To express Him is our unhampered and ongoing opportunity.
Mrs. Eddy's writings are filled with fresh reminders of the source of true healing power. For instance, she says, "Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God's own way, and let human justice pattern the divine."Science and Health, p. 542.Also, "Prayer, watching, and working, combined with self-immolation, are God's gracious means for accomplishing whatever has been successfully done for the Christianization and health of mankind."Ibid., p. 1.Our prayers, therefore, witness to God's gracious means of accomplishment. Our watching and working are impelled by God. In a word, all healing action stems from a purely divine source.
Our specific role in this healing action is to know the truth and to reject what is unlike God. Evil is persuasive, appearing as pain, human conflict, or depression. Are we always firm in directly uncovering and rejecting whatever evil may present to us? We would quickly toss aside something as minor as an unwanted TV commercial. In a similar way, we need not tolerate evil's intrusion into our life.
Discouragement and guilt are particularly insidious suggestions that confront us in battling self doubt. Like the steady, hypnotic drip of a faucet, mortal mind would appear as our own thought, suggesting over and over, "I cannot heal (or, I am not able to respond to healing). Everyone else can, but I can't." Often this suggestion is not even conscious, and needs to be surfaced and censored. It needs to be recognized as the imposition of a belief that man is material. The belief will then disappear with the understanding that man, the spiritual idea, the reflection of Mind, is always responsive to Truth, always expressing the power of God. We can vehemently and effectively deny any unresponsiveness and guilt as many times as these present themselves.
Discouragement and the "oh, what's the use" attitude can be vigorously challenged if they come to pollute our prayers. Here is where we need a clear-sighted declaration to the effect that we can be healed. God does the healing, and we are receptive only to the Christ, Truth. We are all pure, unobstructed, spiritual ideas, innately expressive of ever-unfolding Truth. There is nothing to impede Truth's healing power.
In seeing through and rejecting the specific claim of fear that underlies all manifestations of disease, pain, or immobility, we establish in consciousness the allness of God. Regarding the destruction of error Mrs. Eddy says, "The error that is seen aright as error, has received its death blow; but never until then."Miscellaneous Writings, p. 299.
Sometimes it seems that no matter how clearly we have acknowledged Spirit's all presence and all power, when we dip into the mainstream of the day this clarity is muddied. We may not consciously resort to specific prayer during this active period, and we may feel ourselves separated from God. But actually, during the rush of a day, every action — whether to calculate a problem or drive a car — is an opportunity to identify our being as the continuing, unselfed reflection of God. Every effort toward goodness and honesty, every stand for Principle, reveals our true self. And as we continue stretching for Truth, instinctively denying evil, we show forth an intuitive clinging to good. And this steadfast clinging is the basis of prayer.
God's ideas are the content of our healing prayer. Mrs. Eddy clearly tells of the source and nature of true ideas when she says, "Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal." Science and Health, p. 88.Is it we who originate something "spiritual, harmonious, and eternal"? No. Our ability to pray has its roots in our being the reflection of infinite Love, God. Let the self-doubting mortal become like the expectant child listening to his Father. Mrs. Eddy once wrote to a student: "The healing will grow more easy and be more immediate as you realize that God, good, is all, and good is Love. You must gain Love, and lose the false sense called love. You must feel the Love that never faileth, — that perfect sense of divine power that makes healing no longer power but grace. Then you will have the Love that casts out fear and when fear is gone doubt is gone and your work is done. Why? because it never was undone."We Knew Mary Baker Eddy (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1979), pp. 90-91.
Self doubt is overcome by the healing presence of infinite Spirit. As our humanly conditioned selfhood is put off, there is nothing left to be doubtful.
