If you had just been told that you would never be well, wouldn't you be startled and perhaps a little bewildered to have someone else say firmly and with conviction, "You don't have to be sick"? Then, you can understand just how I felt the day a Christian Scientist dried my tears and encouraged me to take my stand "against the powers of this world," as she put it.See Eph. 6: 12.
I was in a Christian Science Reading Room. My only reason for going there was that I needed someone to talk to. After driving around for an hour in tears, I spotted the Reading Room sign and thought that perhaps I would find someone there to listen to my troubles. I simply could not accept the verdict that had just been presented to me.
Even though I did not understand what the librarian was talking about when she said, "You don't have to be sick," I clung to her words like a drowning man holding to a life rope. Was it possible there was another way? Somehow her words penetrated the numbness I was feeling. A ray of hope began to shine through my fears. But the woman's next statement was just as much a surprise as the first one! Her words, quoting Paul, were gentle but still firm: "Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."Eph. 6:13. What did putting on armor have to do with my getting well? I could certainly see that this disease was evil, but what sort of a stand could I take against it? Then the woman tenderly told me I was the perfect child of God.
