Testimonies of Healing
The following testimonies were submitted by members and guests of
the Christian Science Society of Libertyville, IL. If you are interested
in hearing more examples of how ordinary people are using prayer
in their daily lives and to heal, please join us on
Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m.
This page is updated periodically so be sure to visit again for fresh inspiration!
Breathing Restored
I started to have a little trouble breathing a couple of weeks ago and didn't think much of it. After a few days it started to become more aggressive and I had trouble getting my breath. At that point I started praying about it. Then I realized that for the past several weeks I had become anxious about a number of things. This helped me focus my prayers. I was lead to 2 hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal: 93 and 154:
The full words of these two hymns were helpful, but the verses that
meant the most were:
(From Hymn 93):
Dwelling in Love that cannot change,
From anxious fear man finds release;
No more his homeless longings range,
God keepeth him in perfect peace.
(and from Hymn 154):
In Thee I have no pain or sorrow,
No anxious thought, no load of care;
Thou art the same today, tomorrow;
Thy love and truth are everywhere.
A short time after praying with these hymns the breathing problem vanished. It proved to me again that disease is not in the body, but that our thoughts must find peace in the truth of God's ever present Love.
-B.P., church member
I started to have a little trouble breathing a couple of weeks ago and didn't think much of it. After a few days it started to become more aggressive and I had trouble getting my breath. At that point I started praying about it. Then I realized that for the past several weeks I had become anxious about a number of things. This helped me focus my prayers. I was lead to 2 hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal: 93 and 154:
The full words of these two hymns were helpful, but the verses that
meant the most were:
(From Hymn 93):
Dwelling in Love that cannot change,
From anxious fear man finds release;
No more his homeless longings range,
God keepeth him in perfect peace.
(and from Hymn 154):
In Thee I have no pain or sorrow,
No anxious thought, no load of care;
Thou art the same today, tomorrow;
Thy love and truth are everywhere.
A short time after praying with these hymns the breathing problem vanished. It proved to me again that disease is not in the body, but that our thoughts must find peace in the truth of God's ever present Love.
-B.P., church member
Foot discomfort healed
On vacation this summer, I was helping set up the campsite with my family. While doing so, I noticed some mild pain under the strap of my flip-flop. I was busy at the time, so I didn't investigate the problem immediately. However, the discomfort didn't go away. I sat down to see what was going on with my foot and I saw a small but protruding bruise and swollen area just under the strap of the sandal. I didn't recall injuring myself in any way earlier, and I was faced with both fear about what might be causing this issue and worry about how this might impact the hiking we planned to do. I immediately decided to address this physical issue with metaphysical prayer. To me, praying means replacing the mental attention given to a problem with one or more spiritual truths. The first idea that came to me was based on a conversation I had with my five-year old son the previous week. He was creatively (and incorrectly) imagining how the body functions- but he stated it like a fact. I was struck with how seriously he seemed to believe his statement was true. I decided not to correct him because from time to time, even solid medical assertions are proven incorrect. Remember when butter and eggs were "bad" for you? And indoor heated pools helped respiratory issues like asthma? I realized that whatever seemed to be the cause of this swollen bruise on my foot had no real foundation or cause to me as a spiritual idea of God. Mrs. Eddy writes, "The truths of immortal Mind sustain man, and they annihilate the fables of mortal mind..." (Science and Health, p. 103: 25). I thought about how feeble these fables are and how easily they seem to be forgotten once they are disproved. I held this idea firmly in my thought as I continued to organize the camp. I was immediately conscious of the fact that there was no further discomfort in my foot and less than an hour later, I sat down to dust my feet of and I was happy to find that not only was the swelling and bruising gone, but there was absolutely no tenderness, even when I pressed on the area that had been afflicted. I am extremely grateful for Christian Science and it's quick, practical, and effective healing power.
-H.H., church member
On vacation this summer, I was helping set up the campsite with my family. While doing so, I noticed some mild pain under the strap of my flip-flop. I was busy at the time, so I didn't investigate the problem immediately. However, the discomfort didn't go away. I sat down to see what was going on with my foot and I saw a small but protruding bruise and swollen area just under the strap of the sandal. I didn't recall injuring myself in any way earlier, and I was faced with both fear about what might be causing this issue and worry about how this might impact the hiking we planned to do. I immediately decided to address this physical issue with metaphysical prayer. To me, praying means replacing the mental attention given to a problem with one or more spiritual truths. The first idea that came to me was based on a conversation I had with my five-year old son the previous week. He was creatively (and incorrectly) imagining how the body functions- but he stated it like a fact. I was struck with how seriously he seemed to believe his statement was true. I decided not to correct him because from time to time, even solid medical assertions are proven incorrect. Remember when butter and eggs were "bad" for you? And indoor heated pools helped respiratory issues like asthma? I realized that whatever seemed to be the cause of this swollen bruise on my foot had no real foundation or cause to me as a spiritual idea of God. Mrs. Eddy writes, "The truths of immortal Mind sustain man, and they annihilate the fables of mortal mind..." (Science and Health, p. 103: 25). I thought about how feeble these fables are and how easily they seem to be forgotten once they are disproved. I held this idea firmly in my thought as I continued to organize the camp. I was immediately conscious of the fact that there was no further discomfort in my foot and less than an hour later, I sat down to dust my feet of and I was happy to find that not only was the swelling and bruising gone, but there was absolutely no tenderness, even when I pressed on the area that had been afflicted. I am extremely grateful for Christian Science and it's quick, practical, and effective healing power.
-H.H., church member
Healed of illness while traveling
The healings I have had through prayer are numerous. Fifty-one years ago, I was a new high school graduate travelling in northwest Wyoming near the Teton mountains. It was not as developed as it is today.
We were about a day’s drive from the last big town, when I got sick to my stomach, uncontrollably vomiting. Perhaps, the sense of isolation and knowing that being sick was interfering with the family’s travels, made matters worse for me.
My father called a Christian Science practitioner back in Chicago from a phone in a small diner. The practitioner had helped me many times through my childhood. His voice was calm and reassuring. He told me confidently, I would be healed very soon.
My dad sat with me and read the Lesson-Sermon out loud. It included the Bible story of Jacob struggling with an angel until “the break of day.” Jacob refused to let go until it blessed him, at which time God rewarded him for struggling until victorious by renaming him, Israel.
Jacob was struggling with his fear of his brother Esau. The parallel I saw in this story, was that I was struggling with a sense of illness and fear, and I was not about to give up until I was well. I started improving, but it took several days to really get well. I was grateful it had not interfered too much with my family’s plans. I kept studying the Lesson and thinking about Jacob’s struggle and victory to support the prayer of the practitioner.
Months passed. I started college located in downtown Chicago in the fall. The practitioner, someone I had known only as a voice on the phone during my childhood, had his office on LaSalle St., near my school. I called and made an appointment to meet and thank him in person.
He was a robust, older gentleman with a warm personality. I asked him how he was so confident I would get well. He told me he worked for a railroad, laying track in that same part of Wyoming as a young man. It was hard labor. The track crews slept in tents in all kinds of weather and had to fend off wild animals. He was a new Christian Scientist carrying a Bible and “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” among his few possessions.
He said he knew God was with me, just like God had been with him in that same remote area when he had an accident that severed four fingers on one hand. Another worker had swung a sledge hammer to drive in a railroad spike to hold the rail in place my practitioner friend was holding. The hammer struck his fingers on the edge of the rail.
This shocked everyone. No medical help was around. My practitioner friend wrapped the fingers and damaged hand in a handkerchief and went to his tent to pray. He resisted the temptation to look. Instead, he opened his books, reading and praying until he finally fell asleep. When he unwrapped his hand, the fingers were attached and working. He showed me the fingers. There was a scar around each one of them. He wiggled them and said, “Do you see, sonny? It was because of this that I knew God was with you as he was with me.” I now understood how absent prayer helps you no matter where you are.
-P.H., church member
The healings I have had through prayer are numerous. Fifty-one years ago, I was a new high school graduate travelling in northwest Wyoming near the Teton mountains. It was not as developed as it is today.
We were about a day’s drive from the last big town, when I got sick to my stomach, uncontrollably vomiting. Perhaps, the sense of isolation and knowing that being sick was interfering with the family’s travels, made matters worse for me.
My father called a Christian Science practitioner back in Chicago from a phone in a small diner. The practitioner had helped me many times through my childhood. His voice was calm and reassuring. He told me confidently, I would be healed very soon.
My dad sat with me and read the Lesson-Sermon out loud. It included the Bible story of Jacob struggling with an angel until “the break of day.” Jacob refused to let go until it blessed him, at which time God rewarded him for struggling until victorious by renaming him, Israel.
Jacob was struggling with his fear of his brother Esau. The parallel I saw in this story, was that I was struggling with a sense of illness and fear, and I was not about to give up until I was well. I started improving, but it took several days to really get well. I was grateful it had not interfered too much with my family’s plans. I kept studying the Lesson and thinking about Jacob’s struggle and victory to support the prayer of the practitioner.
Months passed. I started college located in downtown Chicago in the fall. The practitioner, someone I had known only as a voice on the phone during my childhood, had his office on LaSalle St., near my school. I called and made an appointment to meet and thank him in person.
He was a robust, older gentleman with a warm personality. I asked him how he was so confident I would get well. He told me he worked for a railroad, laying track in that same part of Wyoming as a young man. It was hard labor. The track crews slept in tents in all kinds of weather and had to fend off wild animals. He was a new Christian Scientist carrying a Bible and “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” among his few possessions.
He said he knew God was with me, just like God had been with him in that same remote area when he had an accident that severed four fingers on one hand. Another worker had swung a sledge hammer to drive in a railroad spike to hold the rail in place my practitioner friend was holding. The hammer struck his fingers on the edge of the rail.
This shocked everyone. No medical help was around. My practitioner friend wrapped the fingers and damaged hand in a handkerchief and went to his tent to pray. He resisted the temptation to look. Instead, he opened his books, reading and praying until he finally fell asleep. When he unwrapped his hand, the fingers were attached and working. He showed me the fingers. There was a scar around each one of them. He wiggled them and said, “Do you see, sonny? It was because of this that I knew God was with you as he was with me.” I now understood how absent prayer helps you no matter where you are.
-P.H., church member
Quick Recovery from a Fall
I was coming down the stairs on Tuesday and totally missed the last step. I landed hard and in such a way as to wrench and hyper-extend my knee. I started limping, but immediately challenged the thought of accident, knowing that there can be no accidents in God's kingdom, as Mary Baker Eddy states, where we all live in harmony. That removed the limping. I addressed any residual tenderness and pain with the same manner of thinking. The knee did not swell or discolor in any way and I road my bike for 5 miles within a hour of the supposed accident. I am so grateful for God's constant presence and protection.
-B.P., church member
I was coming down the stairs on Tuesday and totally missed the last step. I landed hard and in such a way as to wrench and hyper-extend my knee. I started limping, but immediately challenged the thought of accident, knowing that there can be no accidents in God's kingdom, as Mary Baker Eddy states, where we all live in harmony. That removed the limping. I addressed any residual tenderness and pain with the same manner of thinking. The knee did not swell or discolor in any way and I road my bike for 5 miles within a hour of the supposed accident. I am so grateful for God's constant presence and protection.
-B.P., church member
Accidents are Unknown to God
My husband and I were tearing down our old garage. I was on a sixteen-foot ladder inside the garage and he was on top of the roof. We worked as a team in this manner using crowbars to pry the boards apart. Working above my head, I would push my crowbar away from me as far as I could so he could get better leverage from his angle. One particular board was really resisting and when I pushed my crowbar away, my hand slipped and the crowbar slammed backwards toward me and hit me on the jaw. My first thought was the fear that this might develop into a lump and bruise. I was reading at the church service the next day and didn't want my appearance to be distracting. However, I dismissed this fear and immediately turned to prayer. What came to mind was a part of a quote, "Accidents are unknown to God..." from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. I had memorized this quote as a child and it has been helpful on numerous occasions. I knew that this demolition project and reading at church were both good actions and should not be hindered in any way. I continued to pray in this manner- focusing on ideas from God instead of dwelling on the fear-based material picture. I worked to resist the temptation to replay the scene in my thinking and as I did so, the throbbing pain quickly dissolved. The area was a little tender for the rest of the day, there was no bruise. Considering the force of the impact, I consider this an excellent demonstration of God's law overthrowing the laws of matter. The rest of the demolition was harmonious and the church service went very well. I am extremely grateful to be able to rely on the teachings of Christian Science for immediate help.
-H.H., church member
Pain Dissolves Through Prayer
I started to have a problem with one part of my body which seemed like an infection of some sort. Then it moved into a back problem. I was running a slight fever off and on and then it ended up with constipation. I had been praying about this, knowing my complete health
as a child of God, but there was some concern. Then, in the middle of the night I awoke to these words: "Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious action." I knew this was written by Mary Baker Eddy, but I had never memorized it. I prayed and thought about this during that night as I was awake three or four times for an hour or so each time. Working with this idea took away my concern. When I awoke in the morning, I had to look the quotation up and found it on page 283 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and I continued to pray with it. By mid-morning the pain was dissolving, no more fever, and my system was returning to harmony. I am very grateful that God sends us the truths we need to meet every challenge.
-B.P., church member
I started to have a problem with one part of my body which seemed like an infection of some sort. Then it moved into a back problem. I was running a slight fever off and on and then it ended up with constipation. I had been praying about this, knowing my complete health
as a child of God, but there was some concern. Then, in the middle of the night I awoke to these words: "Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious action." I knew this was written by Mary Baker Eddy, but I had never memorized it. I prayed and thought about this during that night as I was awake three or four times for an hour or so each time. Working with this idea took away my concern. When I awoke in the morning, I had to look the quotation up and found it on page 283 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and I continued to pray with it. By mid-morning the pain was dissolving, no more fever, and my system was returning to harmony. I am very grateful that God sends us the truths we need to meet every challenge.
-B.P., church member
My First Healing
I was newly married and had just begun to study Christian Science. I was raised in a Protestant church but had recently found Christian Science and begun reading Science and Health. My husband and I were expecting to go to a friend's dinner party, however I felt quite unwell with symptoms of a cold. This quote from Science and Health came to me, "Omnipotence has all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dishonor God" (p. 228). Well, from my Protestant background I knew I could not dishonor God. With this firm conviction in mind I decided to go forward with our plans. During the evening I was unaware of the symptoms and that was the end of it! Needless to say that gave me the confidence to go forward with my study of Christian Science. I now have recorded almost 2 dozen healings in my journal.
-B.H., church member
I was newly married and had just begun to study Christian Science. I was raised in a Protestant church but had recently found Christian Science and begun reading Science and Health. My husband and I were expecting to go to a friend's dinner party, however I felt quite unwell with symptoms of a cold. This quote from Science and Health came to me, "Omnipotence has all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dishonor God" (p. 228). Well, from my Protestant background I knew I could not dishonor God. With this firm conviction in mind I decided to go forward with our plans. During the evening I was unaware of the symptoms and that was the end of it! Needless to say that gave me the confidence to go forward with my study of Christian Science. I now have recorded almost 2 dozen healings in my journal.
-B.H., church member
Cold Symptoms Overcome
I was quickly entering the early stage of a bad cold. In the past, this presented me with a week to 10 days of suffering and often difficulty in breathing. I knew I couldn't run or just hope for the best this time. I had to face this issue directly with prayer. A Wednesday night service a few weeks before talked about just saying "no" in our prayers, and, at the same time, realizing clearly that as God's children we are protected, safe, and healthy. That's just what I did and by the next morning I was completely free.
-B.P., church member
I was quickly entering the early stage of a bad cold. In the past, this presented me with a week to 10 days of suffering and often difficulty in breathing. I knew I couldn't run or just hope for the best this time. I had to face this issue directly with prayer. A Wednesday night service a few weeks before talked about just saying "no" in our prayers, and, at the same time, realizing clearly that as God's children we are protected, safe, and healthy. That's just what I did and by the next morning I was completely free.
-B.P., church member
Burn Healed Quickly
Last winter, I touched a part of our hot wood stove with my thumb and felt a significant burn. My initial thought was, "Oh, that felt bad, it's probably going to blister," etc. But then I considered what I had been pondering just before this happened. I was enjoying a deep appreciation of God’s love for me. I was realizing that He saw me as He made me in His own image and likeness—as a spiritual being, and naturally loves me unconditionally. My thought of myself as a mere mortal struggling along through life seemed so small by comparison. So I decided to contrast what happened to my thumb with the God-view of me that I had just been enjoying. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p. 476), Mary Baker Eddy writes:
“When speaking of God’s children, not the children of men, Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of God is within you;’ that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God’s image is unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy. Man is not a material habitation for Soul; he is himself spiritual. Soul, being Spirit, is seen in nothing imperfect nor material.”
I reasoned that if I am pure and holy, then a burned thumb can’t have more power over me then God does. What He knows about me is more substantial and has more influence on my health than any physical condition can. I felt convinced that this must be true, which removed the fear about what might happen to my thumb. My confidence and trust in God held me up as I went about my day. I noticed a few hours later that I had forgotten about whole thing and there was no evidence of a burn on my thumb.
This experience helped to fortify my understanding that I am the idea of God, and suggestions that I am anything other than this can be handled by substituting for them the right, Godlike view—like Jesus did.
-R.R., church member
Back Pain Healed
One day while lifting my three year old son, I felt what seemed to be a badly pulled muscle in my back. I was in the midst of moving into a new house and I momentarily felt afraid that a back injury would really get in the way. I took a few moments to quiet my thought and to listen to God, to pray. The idea came to me that I could never be separate from God. Man (and woman), as made in God's image, is never pulled away from his source. I leaned on these ideas whenever doubt or fear crept into my thinking. I still had considerable unpacking to do. I was able to go about my day with no limited mobility but the muscle still felt strained. After a few days of praying to understand more about my inseparability and unalterable unity with God, all lingering discomfort simply lifted away. Two days after this healing, I helped move a washing machine and a chest freezer up and down a flight of stairs with no fear of repeat injury. I am very grateful for the quick and practical nature of Christian Science!
-H.H., church member
One day while lifting my three year old son, I felt what seemed to be a badly pulled muscle in my back. I was in the midst of moving into a new house and I momentarily felt afraid that a back injury would really get in the way. I took a few moments to quiet my thought and to listen to God, to pray. The idea came to me that I could never be separate from God. Man (and woman), as made in God's image, is never pulled away from his source. I leaned on these ideas whenever doubt or fear crept into my thinking. I still had considerable unpacking to do. I was able to go about my day with no limited mobility but the muscle still felt strained. After a few days of praying to understand more about my inseparability and unalterable unity with God, all lingering discomfort simply lifted away. Two days after this healing, I helped move a washing machine and a chest freezer up and down a flight of stairs with no fear of repeat injury. I am very grateful for the quick and practical nature of Christian Science!
-H.H., church member