Christian Science has brought many blessings and great joy to my life. A recent experience proved challenging, but persisting with the truths taught by Christ Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy again led me to healing.
I left Scotland to visit family in Australia. On route I began to feel unwell. Having always relied on prayer in Christian Science to bring healing, I anticipated a quick return to normal health. When this did not come, I contacted a Christian Science practitioner. I was sure all would be well, and with loving support from the practitioner I completed the trip and returned home. But the condition worsened—the symptoms indicated to me some form of heart disease—and I became quite fearful. My father had passed on following a similar difficulty.
As a Christian Science practitioner, I was used to praying daily for myself as well as for patients. I continued to do this, beginning each morning with the “Daily Prayer” (Church Manual, p. 41) and study of the weekly Bible Lesson. I also focused on a verse from the Bible: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord” (Ps. 118:17). There was regular contact with the practitioner, and we shared many helpful thoughts. One particular passage that stood out to me was from Science and Health: “It is only by acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annuls the claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator” (p. 491). I knew this was the way forward, and I undertook to watch that my every thought acknowledged the supremacy of Spirit.
