When I was a teenager, I took karate lessons, not to become an expert fighter but for the athleticism, discipline, fellowship, and self-control involved. I've never forgotten something my sensei (teacher) told us about the mental attitude one should have during karate competitions. He said, "A combat must be won first in the mind before it can be won physically." In the years since then, I've realized that he was describing a winning approach to much more than karate competitions. What he said is true about spiritual healing as well.
When I'm confronted with a frightening situation—whether it's pain, disease, or some other kind of problem—I've found prayer to be the most effective way to find a solution. For me, the essence of prayer is tuning in to the nature of God and His creation. One example of how prayer heals happened some time ago when I was playing squash with friends from my office.
During one of the games, I was hit in the eye by the ball. As anybody who has played squash knows, the ball travels very fast after being hit, so the impact was quite hard, and my eye hurt a lot. Immediately, I started praying. It occurred to me that what had happened couldn't be a part of God's creation because, as the Bible says in the first chapter of Genesis, all that He made is not only good but very good.
