In her essay on contagion, Mary Baker Eddy says that we would all become healthier if we would increase our “faith in the power of God to heal and to save mankind” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 229). Merriam-webster.com defines power in part as “ability to act or produce an effect.” So the power of God to heal means that God can produce the effect of healing here and now in our life.
Thirteen years ago I experienced this power when a serious physical condition was healed through prayer. A bad cold had developed into a much worse condition involving shortness of breath and other disturbing symptoms. I had even rented a wheelchair because I couldn’t move my swollen legs. To human thought I was indeed powerless! But having always relied on God with good results, I phoned a Christian Science practitioner for help.
The practitioner told me with conviction, “This is not going to take time. There is no delay involved in what God has already completed—your perfection. The human must conform to the divine.” She shared a line from a hymn, “Thy kingdom, God, within us / Shows forth Love’s sweet control” (Margaret Glenn Matters, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 221). Instead of physicality exerting power over me, divine Love, which was speaking to my consciousness, was influencing the course of events. The practitioner urged me not to believe I was actually “going through something.” Since I was the reflection of divine Mind, I had never really taken into thought anything unlike the truth of being. And if I’d never really entertained the concept of disease, it could not be pictured forth on my body.
