Have you ever thought much about the way spiritual growth and healing go together? When a healing comes quickly, or primarily through the prayers of a Christian Science practitioner, we may feel sometimes as though little, if anything, has changed in terms of our spiritual growth. Conversely, if we're praying about a stubborn difficulty over a period of time, we may feel we're having plenty of spiritual growth but not the healing we expect. Yet ultimately our growth in spiritual understanding does result in healing, and we see that the tide of healing was always in motion, even when it seemed invisible.
I realized the importance of being a seeker for
Truth and not just a "seeker for healing." It
occurred to me that if one comes to the book
seeking Truth for Truth's sake, he's likely to ponder
everything he reads. This is seeking to grow in
spiritual understanding, and the history of the book
shows that this approach has regularly resulted in
healing as well.
Spiritual growth is learning to know God better, to trust Him more. It's learning more about our true spiritual selfhood as God's image and likeness. True spiritual growth also involves putting our understanding into practice, growing in Christian character, expressing more goodness, more love, more integrity, and progressively more confidence. This kind of growth must lead to healing and should be a part of every healing we experience.
