I was a young mother whose family was struggling to make ends meet, and I had come to church to worship God. My grandmother had always told me that you can feel our heavenly Father’s loving care when you pray, and when I prayed during that Wednesday testimony meeting in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, I heard an angel – an inspiration from God – say to me, “I will lift you up!” From that moment on, I felt a conviction that God was taking care of my family and me no matter what.
I had been seeking a better understanding of the spiritual fact that, regardless of our insufficient income, all was well. That church service was a turning point for me because I stopped looking at what I believed to be my want. Instead, as I prayed, I thanked God, Spirit, for the abundance of good that He is always providing. I thanked God for the flourishing natural world around me and for what I was already able to afford; I even thanked God for other people’s blessings. And I prayed on behalf of others who seemed also to be in need.
The Apostle Paul wrote of God, “In him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). We live in Spirit, in which God-provided substance is already ours and is sufficient for every need. We do not have to pray for God to give us more because God created us all complete, lacking nothing good or needful.
That evening, I continued to pray, acknowledging the spiritual fact that God is our infinitely rich and loving source. I was yielding a sense of my physical circumstances to the understanding of the infinite good that comes from God; I was rising from a false sense of life as material to the consciousness of the infinite spiritual substance that is always ours. In this, I felt, I was following Christ Jesus.
The Bible says that before Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead (see John 11:1-44), he lifted up his eyes and thanked God. Was he not raising his perception to behold the goodness and abundance of God? At other times, Jesus commanded people to “arise” – for example, when he raised from death the only son of a widow (see Luke 7:11-15).
Jesus exemplified Christ, and he said that his followers were to heal as he did. It is our oneness with God as His likeness that enables us to obediently follow Jesus’ example. As Mary Baker Eddy tells us in the Christian Science textbook, “Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts consciousness and leads into all truth” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 505). This understanding brings healing.
God – Life, Truth, and Love – gives us abundant good. The book of Isaiah says, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (55:1). We can always come to our spiritual source, God, for all that we need.
The Bible gives us the Word of God, which is our source of supply, our substance, and our very life. And Science and Health shines light on this spiritually nourishing Word. Rather than pursuing material goals, I continued to serve and trust God at church and everywhere else. Gradually, inspired by what I was learning through daily Bible study and prayer, I was led to pursue a career in print, and then broadcast, communications.
One day, a friend asked me to be the voice for his TV commercial. When the producer met me, he offered me a job in his company. And within a few months, he made me his assistant. During the following years, we worked very successfully together. My circumstances changed significantly; it seemed as though the windows of heaven were opened (see Malachi 3:10), and my family and I were lifted out of lack.
So who is lifted to God by divine Love’s healing message? Anyone who commits their heart to seeking a better understanding of God, who watches and listens for God’s direction, and who devotes their life to Him. Jesus taught us that it is Love that provides for our every need. In prayer, we invite angels, God’s pure and loving thoughts, into our consciousness to lift and heal us. These, in turn, show us that we are forever united with God and His manifold blessings.
Adapted from an article published in the Aug. 25, 2025, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
