Searching for cures and direction?

A FEW YEARS AGO I met a man on an airplane. Just before we took off, I noticed he was holding his hands over a bag of crystals. He explained that doing this would ensure a safe flight for everyone. He believed that the energy from the crystals would calm him, help him feel secure, even dissipate some fear.

Not long after, I noticed a newspaper article telling how people in St. Petersburg, Russia were turning to many different methods - horoscopes, psychics, mesmerism - for healing and calmness. One psychologist said: "These are troubling times. We are all searching madly for cures and direction."

For me, prayer based on understanding God as the all-powerful, all-governing Principle is the only reliable way to find cures and direction. Prayer is not only adequate, but completely practical.

Quiet communion with God helps me see and feel His presence more in my life. I often think about Bible verses like these: "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him" (Ps. 62:5). Also, "When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God?" (Isa. 8:19)

When I pray, I often begin by getting very still. I listen, humbly, to feel that God is in control of my life, that He loves me, that His being there precludes any other power. God gives me ideas, and these ideas are His ways of guiding and loving me.

Jesus taught that God is our Father, tenderly meeting all our needs. He relied totally on God for direction, and so can we. Each one of us is under God's care, receiving His love. Each one can feel and hear His thoughts. It may take practice. And at first we may feel we're not hearing much. But persistence and a growing spiritual understanding of Him will bring success.

An example of this took place for me during college. Just before finals, I was out with some friends, playing catch with a football. I sprained a finger. Now, for most people this wasn't a big deal, but for me it was serious; I was a music major, and I was very afraid that the sprain would interfere with my ability to perform on the piano.

That night, after the dorm quieted down, I sat on my bed, thinking - praying. Through studying Christian Science, which was discovered by Mary Baker Eddy, I had learned that prayer involved reasoning spiritually to discern my relationship to God. I listened for God's words, God's direction.

And I heard them. I heard God telling me He had given me perfection and wholeness. I felt Him comforting me, assuring me He was All. I began to feel calm. His messages came over and over to me, reminding me of His omnipotence. I spiritually understood that, as God's daughter, I was safe, protected. My fear dissipated.

By the day when I had to perform for my juries, there was no evidence of a sprain. All pain was gone, all swelling had dissolved, and I was able to play as usual.

If you're not used to it, relying on God for healing can take courage. But, the more you turn to Him for help, the stronger you become. The spiritual understanding of God is practical. Looking to Him in times of trouble dissolves disease, hatred, and fear.

Your relationship to God is unbreakable, unavoidable. And through quiet communion with Him, you'll find that you can trust Him to direct and heal you.

Understanding little about the divine Principle which saves and heals, mortals get rid of sin, sickness, and death only in

belief. These errors are not

thus really destroyed, and must therefore cling to mortals until, here or hereafter, they gain the true understanding of God in

the Science which destroys

human delusions about Him

and reveals the grand realities

of His allness.

Mary Baker Eddy