A few years ago, I was experiencing severe pain in my knee whenever I walked. Utilizing a walker helped some, but it was only a temporary aid. I realized I needed to pray for a lasting solution.
Several helpful ideas came to mind. First I recalled the Bible story of Jacob, who one night was in desperate need of God’s help. Throughout the night he struggled with troubling thoughts, but answers didn’t come easily or quickly. Finally, as a result of his persistence, an “an angel, a message from Truth and Love” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 308), came to him, providing the comfort, spiritual understanding, and peace he sought.
I have had instantaneous healings through Christian Science, but in this case I realized I needed to be more like Jacob, sticking with grit and determination to what I knew to be spiritually true: that since I live, move, and have my being in God, Spirit, matter and pain are errors, not truly part of me. I was created in the image and likeness of God, spiritual and pure. I needed to pray my way to demonstrating these spiritual truths.
A short but very impactful Bible verse provided inspiration: “Pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17). I used to think this was virtually impossible—there are way too many demanding activities going on to be able to stop and pray all the time. But to overcome this problem, that was exactly what I needed to do: I had to wholeheartedly keep the truth of my being at the center of thought.
My prayer was simple: “God is Love.” Throughout the day and evening, with every step I took, I affirmed the truth behind those three words, at times praying out loud. Sometimes I got sidetracked and forgot to pray, but then I started up again. These words from a testimony of healing reprinted in Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, felt so true: “There have been some mighty struggles with error, and I have learned that we cannot reach heaven with one long stride or easily drift inside the gate, but that the ‘asking’ and the ‘seeking’ and the ‘knocking’ must be earnest and persistent” (p. 668). I was earnestly doing all three and added a fourth: “knowing”—affirming in my prayers the spiritual truths that overcome error.
In an article titled “What our Leader says,” Mrs. Eddy explains why praying with divinely inspired conviction is effective: “There is no door through which evil can enter, and no space for evil to fill in a mind filled with goodness” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 210). As we mentally yield to God’s truth and goodness, ill effects stemming from errors about our true nature as God’s child increasingly cease to be manifested. Divine Truth silences the voice of error.
After a day of praying without ceasing (to the best of my ability) and reading and studying inspirational Christian Science texts, I awakened in the morning free of knee pain, and it has never returned.
Another of Mrs. Eddy’s writings says: “Be of good cheer; the warfare with one’s self is grand; it gives one plenty of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with you,—and obedience crowns persistent effort with everlasting victory” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 118). I’m grateful for this victory and for the lesson I learned about the value of persistent prayer.
Kaye Cover
Placerville, California, US
