God is All-in-all! God's goodness is immeasurable. Praying to understand the allness of God can expand our ability to prove His healing presence.
"Since God is All, there is no room for His unlikeness," writes Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health. "God, Spirit, alone created all, and called it good." Science and Health, p. 339. God is Spirit. God is All. God is good. These are foundational spiritual truths substantiated in the Bible, and they are laws that can be put into practice in the demonstration of spiritual healing.
To get to know God as All and as all good is to understand that good fills all space. As we comprehend God's allness, we become more aware of the correlative truth that man is included in God's goodness and is inseparable from Him. And it is this inseparability from God that enables all of us to claim our own eternal goodness. The basic spiritual law that man is included in the infinite goodness of Spirit is our assurance that illness has no place in our existence.
It is not necessary for us to understand every facet of the infinity of God, Spirit, to demonstrate effectively the ever-availability of God's healing power. To discern more fully any specific aspect of God's nature enlarges our recognition of the whole truth of an infinite, all-good God and promotes spiritual progress and healing.
A realization of God as all substance brought healing to me at a time of great need. I had been having constant pain in my hips and knees; climbing stairs, standing up, and any strenuous exercise brought great discomfort. Even sleeping was difficult. This went on for several months, and I prayed daily to realize the all-goodness of God; I knew that in reality I could only express Him. During this time I was able to continue my normal activities, and no one except my immediate family was aware that there was a difficulty.
My study of the first verse of Psalm 27 opened my thought to an entirely new concept of God. It reads, "The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" The realization came to me that the words "strength of my life" had a much deeper meaning than is implied by physical vigor and longevity. To me it clearly affirmed that because I was the creation of God, He was the substance of my life. Since God was All, I could only express what God is, and so in truth my life was spiritual, substantial, eternal. The material body was never my true substance, because God was the absolute All of my existence. The understanding of the impregnability of my life, because God was the strength of it, enabled me to realize the healing power of God.
In correlation with my Bible study, I found in Science and Health this question: "What is substance?" The answer includes the following: "Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are substance . ..." Science and Health, p. 468. As I pondered this and many other passages about God, I began to realize more of the nature of my true substance. I could see that my being was not in a defective material body made up of bones, muscles, and other such elements, which could be subject to decay. My life expressed the complete and harmonious substance of God, good. Since God is everywhere and all substance, there is no room for material substance to exist. God had never created anything about me that could be afflicted. His likeness, man, was right there where mortal sense was claiming an aching body. My substance was whole. In reality, my being was spiritual, was always in working order.
One day I was running up and down stairs freely, and I joyfully realized that all activities had become painless and harmonious. And sleep came normally. This healing has been complete and permanent. My gratitude to God is boundless for the spiritual inspiration gleaned from the Bible and Science and Health, revealing real substance to be God, good.
Denouncing and destroying in our thought the suggestion (and that is all it can be) that man has any existence apart from God, clears the way for us to recognize the allness and reality of true substance—Spirit. Thus we are able to prove in some degree the nothingness of matter.
As matter's nothingness is exposed, eternal, spiritual substance becomes less transcendental and more real to us. Our true, spiritual existence is revealed to be the expression of God. Could it be possible for Spirit to be expressed by anything imperfect? No! The only substance man can express must be always perfect. This perfect man is the real you and me.
The basic spiritual law that man is
included in the infinite goodness
of Spirit is our assurance that illness
has no place in our existence.
Christ Jesus demonstrated the allness and goodness of divine substance by restoring health to those who were in need of healing. The blind regained sight. Leprosy was instantly cleansed. The lame walked freely again. And Jesus proved by his own remarkable resurrection from the grave that the strength and substance of man's life are God. Healings such as these offer positive proof of the spiritual fact that there is no room in God's infinite goodness for illness, decrepitude, or discord to exist. Jesus' example gives us the needful hope and faith, along with the understanding, to demonstrate God's ever-present goodness and allness.
God's allness is already established fact. We don't have to make God All or change man into His perfect expression. But we do need to enlarge our comprehension of the spiritual reality of being. Illness, decay, or deterioration is never in man, the expression of true substance. Not only is there no place in God's allness for illness to exist; there isn't even any room for the fear of illness. As the Bible asks, "Of whom shall I be afraid?" Should we be afraid of nothingness?
We all can find our health, peace, and freedom right now in the realization that God and His goodness are everlastingly right where we are, because He is ever present and All-in-all. "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." Ps. 33:5. These words from Psalms inspire us to trust in God's allness.
For thou art my lamp, O Lord:
and the Lord will lighten my darkness.
For by thee I have run through a troop:
by my God have I leaped over a wall. As for God,
his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried:
he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.
II Samuel 22:29-31
