Reading of the struggles that so many have with addictions and on the other hand, knowing people who have found that their addictions simply left them when their thinking started to become more spiritual, I thought it might be helpful to share a few.
Here are a couple to start with - both audio:
[url]"Healing of addictions" [/url]
The first one is freedom from smoking and the second a very moving one of an instantaneous healing of drinking, kidney disease and sight defects. A few years ago, I posted excerpts from the written account and it hugely helped someone here and she turned her life around.
[url]"Discovering God" [/url]
16.00 mins into this one is the story of a dear friend of mine who was suicidal. After three attempts at killing himself, (he was discovered each time and stopped) a work colleague gave him Mary Baker Eddy's book Science and Health and kept on at him until he started to read it. He found it difficult at first and then became engrossed and as he said, he just forgot to smoke and to drink and to take drugs. His life was totally transformed.
Love and peace,
Judy
This healing was one I witnessed during my teenage years and it left a deep impression on me. One of my mother's church friends had a husband who was an alcoholic. Under the influence of drink, he became abusive and obscene and also sometimes violent. (I was terrified of him) He had also been an asthmatic all his life, but had had an instantaneous healing once when he had an attack on a London street, right in front of a practitioner's home and his wife had taken him in to see her, so he knew that Christian Science worked, though he loved to mock it (he considered himself an atheist). I'll call him John.
Anyway, he was very poorly when his wife left to go to London and she said to him "If you get desperate, ring Claire." (my mother) So my mother had this call at about 1a.m. one night - John didn't tell her what the problem was, just asked her to pray for him as he didn't think he'd make it through the night. He said he'd been calling the doctor out every three hours to give him an injection, but he felt he must let the poor man get some sleep.
When she put the phone down, my mother thought "How on earth can I pray for someone I loathe?" So she thought about it and reminded herself that his wife loved him and she loved her friend, so could do this for her friend. She also reminded herself that he had shown concern for the doctor, which was an unselfish and loving thing to do, despite being so ill. Then she asked herself what she loathed about him and realised it was his (seeming) lack of purity. The way to heal both sickness and sin is this:
"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." (Science & Health p 476:32 by Mary Baker Eddy)
My mother prayed most of the night to establish his innocence and purity in her own thought and only went to sleep when she felt that "peace of God, which passeth all understanding" (Philipians 4:7), which always accompanies a healing.
When John awoke in the morning, he was completely cured of the asthma - never had another attack, but that wasn't all. Before he went to work, their servant used to bring him a double scotch and a cigar. He found that morning that they both tasted like poison. But he told the servant to leave them there and for three days, he kept on and on trying to drink and smoke and finally rang my mother and shouted at her "How dare you heal me of smoking and drinking - I didn't ask you to do that!" Mum replied it was nothing to do with her, that God had done the healing!
He became a changed man - the wonderful, gentle, kind and spiritual person that had been there all along. He joined the church and he and his wife and family (and his work colleagues) felt they had a new husband, father and boss. He had many happy years for the rest of his life. An added bonus was a baby boy who came into their home after he had retired and whom he doted on, being the father-figure to him that he had never had been to his own children.
"And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten..." (Joel 2:25)
Love and peace,
Judy
While I accept that miracles like this can happen I am puzzled by the fact that this man was healed almost against his will. .....which does not fit with the idea that we have god given free will.
Hi Sally,
Well, maybe it proves that the idea people have that God has given us free will isn't actually correct? 😉
Maybe it proves that spiritual "Reality" is actually perfect and harmonious (like I firmly believe it is)?
Maybe it proves that "free will" is actually freedom FROM, not freedom TO.
Freedom from suffering, freedom from lack, freedom from hatred and violence. Freedom from making wrong choices, freedom from the ways that do not work (the meaning of the word "sin".) Freedom to express the qualities of God, freedom to BE the sons and daughters of God, freedom from what would prevent us from enjoying our right to health, harmony, and all the good God has for each of us. Real freedom and independence of thought come not from asserting human will but from conforming to the will of God (which is always good.) In other words, it is in being and doing God’s will that we find true freedom, joy and harmony.
(I went into this in more detail in this post (where I copied the bit above from)
Love and peace,
Judy