“Wouldn’t a medical remedy be more reliable?” “How do you even know God is there to hear your prayers?”
These are the kinds of questions people sometimes ask when they wonder why anyone would prefer a spiritual approach – Christian Science – to solving a health problem rather than a medical intervention. One way that I find it helpful to reply is to share experiences of healing through prayer, such as one that I had about a year ago when I became aware that one side of my back was hurting.
At first I thought to myself, “Well, you’ve done a lot of exercise lately. Maybe too much. And you often carry groceries and heavy packages for blocks before reaching home. Bad idea. Maybe you should lie down for a while, and then you’ll feel better.”
Beyond that, I simply ignored the discomfort. By the next day, however, the pain had radiated to the rest of my back so that it was difficult to move in any way without wincing.
Because turning to God has always helped me when health problems have come up, I did not consider taking a pill, getting a diagnosis, or even making a massage appointment. Instead, I began to pray – to think deeply and humbly about the right-here, right-now presence of God.
From the first chapter of the Bible I had learned that the creator of the universe is God and that everything God creates is good. The Bible also tells us that God is Spirit, and I knew that Spirit is All and was therefore right there with me, as near as my thoughts. Then I prayed to know that God’s thoughts, which are always healing and peace-giving, would be clear and palpable to me and could be my only thoughts.
A long-forgotten memory came to mind. When my two sisters and I were little girls and misbehaved, our mother would remind us of the rules in our house. If we whined or argued, she would reply firmly, “Now, girls, no back talk!”
We knew what that meant. It was time to be quiet and obey.
I wondered why this somewhat amusing memory had surfaced, but then suddenly got it: No back talk! My dear Father-Mother, God, was reminding me that She had established Her universe with laws of harmony and that these sovereign laws could not be countermanded by any supposed other voices protesting or arguing for pain or discord.
I smiled at the notion that a back could talk. Muscles and nerves cannot speak. It is mortal mind – the false, illusive mind opposed to God, good, the only Mind – that talks for them, and nothing it says is legitimate. I saw that what we call a back can be spiritually understood as representing the qualities of strength, support, and proper alignment. The only proper alignment is aligning our thinking with the divine Mind.
The effect of this insight, what Christian Scientists sometimes call an “angel thought,” was immediate. I could actually feel the discomfort begin to fade away. Within two days, all of it disappeared. In the interim, whenever nagging thoughts appeared, such as “Well, some discomfort is still there. And what if it returns?” I stood my ground and faced these fears with a firm “No back talk!”
There is only one God, or power, the Bible tells us again and again. In fact, we read in the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians: “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:4, 5).
Divine Spirit heals. I now know my Mother-Father, God, better and love Her even more for Her constant care.
God hears our prayers and we can turn to Her for effective and reliable spiritual solutions to health problems – with no fear of back talk.
Adapted from an article published in the Nov. 25, 2024, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
