Finding strength and healing

IN the third chapter of the book of Acts there's an account of Peter and John's healing of a man who had been lame since birth.1 The healing was so quick and complete that the man's feet and ankles were immediately strengthened, and he went walking and leaping into the temple, praising God. Because God exists, we can never be without the strength and help we need. The source of our strength isn't really muscles, bones, or anything material, even though it seems to be. The actual source of our strength is God, Spirit. ``Ascribe ye strength unto God,'' the Scriptures teach us. ``The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people.''2

Even in the most difficult or discouraging situation, we can ``ascribe...strength unto God''--and therefore find that strength is ours as well, since man is made in God's image. Our true being is the likeness of the Divine Being, expressing spiritual strength and wholeness. To acknowledge this and to discern it in prayer enable us to experience the bodily, as well as the moral and spiritual, strength we need. We can find, as the lame man did, that we are able to do what we wouldn't otherwise understand we had the capacity to do.

When we feel weak and floundering, perhaps it's because we've accepted without question what the physical senses present, and are believing we're alone and cut off from God's strength and care. Are we merely inadequate mortals, battling to hold our own against a harsh material world and battling against our own mortality? This view of man would cause anyone to feel weak and relatively helpless! But it isn't a true picture, because it ignores God's omnipotence and the fact that His likeness must necessarily express His nature. An omnipotent, allloving God didn't create children who are cut off from His love and power, vainly struggling on their own!

We should never underestimate the effect of turning heart and mind to God, acknowledging Him as the source of our strength. This turning is a surrendering to a higher power that cannot fail--no matter what else or who else has seemed to fail us. God is right here preserving and loving His creation, which includes each one of us, without the tiniest lapse. Because this is true, even weaknesses that would be attributed to age, heredity, injury, or some other factor can be reversed and healed.

God is not weak and neither is His creation. The physical senses and human reasoning argue that creation is obviously material and that therefore whatever power and strength exist are material. But Christian Science has helped many people to experience complete healing in accord with Christ Jesus' teachings, which shows that healing and regeneration through the power of Spirit are natural, and available to everyone.

We do have from God whatever it takes to demonstrate our spiritual wholeness and freedom. And we can prove this. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the Christian Science textbook, Mary Baker Eddy3 tells us: ``Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.''4

Since strength is divinely bestowed, it is ours, and it is permanent.

1See Acts 3:1-8. 2Psalms 68:34, 35. 3The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. 4Science and Health, p. 393. You can find more articles like this one in the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly magazine. DAILY BIBLE VERSE: They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31