A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PERSPECTIVE

It’s not willpower that brings about this change of base. It is a divinely impelled yielding to God – the divine Mind, Love, and Truth – that stirs our thoughts, melts fears, and heals.

Recently I became ill. I went right to God in prayer. This is the guidance that came to me: to acknowledge how God made me, and particularly, to love how God made me.

I wanted to give myself over without reserve to God’s guidance. Jesus taught, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20)

Even in the face of my concerns and discomfort, this didn’t seem impossible – a mustard seed is so tiny! I pictured how a compass has 360 degrees. As you look around the edge of its dial, each degree of change is very small, but together they make a full circle.

So step by step, in mustard seed-sized increments, I engaged with the spiritual facts of creation, of our identity as God’s children. The way God has made me – and all of us – is distinctly spiritual. As the spiritual offspring of the Divine, we express God’s perfect, invulnerable nature. As I consciously embraced these spiritual truths, it felt so natural to deeply love God so very much for how we are created spiritually, as the expression of God’s flawlessness, not as mortals susceptible to illness.

Immediately, my fear began to melt, until it had evaporated. And quickly I felt like myself again – healed entirely. I didn’t stop going in my prayers, though. For the next several hours, one degree at a time, my love for God just grew and grew. It was a stirring and wonderful change of base that not only healed me physically, but deepened my spiritual understanding, too.

God’s guidance to Mary centuries ago – “Fear not” – remains so relevant for us all today. When we pray, we can listen carefully and receptively for divine inspiration, helping us understand why we need not be afraid anymore. Even if it’s just in mustard-seed-sized increments, we can yield up conceptions of ourselves as vulnerable mortals and turn to God’s healing guidance. We, too, have the right to experience the blessings that come when we agree, “Be it unto me according to Thy word.”

By Mark Swinney