The Christian Science spiritual method of caring for difficulties differs from all material methods. One of the most significant differences is that as we go about our work of solving a problem through prayer, in our hearts we know the problem is already solved because it’s unknown to God and therefore has no actual reality.
No material approach has this premise. It’s a crucial and foundational metaphysical point underlying our spiritual work. In this sense, the need in healing isn’t so much to fix things up as it is to wake up to see that things are already spiritual and complete!
I like to think of the account in the Bible when the disciples were working away in a boat trying to catch some fish, but to no avail (see John 21:1–14). You could say they were seeing the resolution of their problem as requiring great human effort and willpower, instead of realizing that a better understanding of spiritual reality, of what’s already true, would adjust the situation.
