Refuse to give consent to sickness

THERE are many moments when we have a choice as to what to accept into our thinking and lives regarding sickness. Whether or not we give our consent to sickness, accept or reject its validity, has a definite, direct bearing on our health and happiness.

Not too long ago I felt I was coming down with all the symptoms of a miserable cold. I thought, ''I have a choice. I can accept this cold right now and suffer through it as usual, or I can reject it right now as having no power or mind.'' I knew God is the only genuine power and law-maker governing us.

Health is actually a quality of God, always expressed in man, God's image. Our well-being, then, is really determined by the law of God, good, not by matter or medical laws. After rejecting the symptoms several times on this basis I was soon free. This and many other healings I have experienced and witnessed as a Christian Scientist have led me to draw some conclusions.

Illness has no chance to attach itself to us if we realize that our true being, as God's likeness, is spiritual and not material, and not liable to fleshly ills. The supposed power of illness is no real power at all. Nor does contagion have actual authority to make us sick.

The Bible clearly indicates our true spirituality: ''God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.''n1

n1 Genesis 1:27. Human sight may insist man is physical and susceptible, but our real selfhood expresses the eternality and perfection of our Maker, divine Spirit. God is the only genuine cause, and man cannot have anything underived from God. As the expression of God, of Truth itself, we cannot have an element or symptom that does not express what is true and whole. If disease can be accepted in an instant, it can be denied instantaneously no matter how long it seems to have been going on. It is good to reject sickness as untrue and unreal instantly, and thus prevent its development. Yet there is never a moment when we cannot deny illness. It is a lie about God's perfect creation, and it always has been. The supposed history of disease, and the consequent liability this is believed to confer, have no power to force the continuation of disease. God's law of harmony governs man. Therefore we can be, and in truth are, the whole, calm expression of God right now.

To be careful that we take into our thinking only what conforms to this spiritual truth is vital to our health. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says: ''Sin and disease must be thought before they can be manifested. You must control evil thoughts in the first instance, or they will control you in the second.''n2

n2 science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 234.

So when aggressive images of disease come to thought, we're wise to withhold our agreement with them. Such images and the fear of symptoms may seem to be a product of our own thought and come to us in a very personal way. But evil is never really personal, because it's not the outcome of God or a part of our true selfhood. We have God-derived dominion over the insidious thought that we are weak or we are hurting.

We may have read about a disease appearing in our city or heard a neighbor describing it in detail. The need is not to ignore it but to see through its apparent reality and reject it. Mrs. Eddy says, ''Common consent is contagious, and it makes disease catching.''n3

n3 Miscellaneous Writings,m p. 228. Disease isn't acceptable in any form.

Because God is the only power, fear and the symptoms associated with it are no part of our true thoughts or being. The divine Mind alone governs man, and this Mind is the source of all our right thoughts. Our impregnability to every claim of sickness is found in our unity with Mind. No fear can set up headquarters in our thought or body when we say ''No!'' to it. As the offspring of God, we have a heritage of health to enjoy.

DAILY BIBLE VERSE Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13