When confronted with evil in any of its apparent forms—disease, violence, pain, loss—we don’t ever need to feel that we’re on the defensive. That’s because Christian Science helps us understand that evil never has power or activity or momentum. It is 100 percent bluster—boastful emptiness. As Mary Baker Eddy insightfully puts it, evil is “nothing claiming to be something” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 330).
If we fail to realize and affirm this point at the outset of our prayer—especially, I’ve found, when metaphysically treating illnesses that have been labeled “aggressive”—then we may allow these lies to “frame the battle,” or try to dictate the conditions. They would attempt to control our thoughts and prayers about the situation much as Goliath did with the armies of Israel.
When Goliath stalked boldly onto the field and challenged Saul and his soldiers to fight with him (see I Samuel 17), he was framing the battle as physical. His whole appearance of brute force was so intimidating that not a single soldier could muster up the courage to face him.
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