Whatever foe we might be facing, whether it be ill health, accident, or financial difficulty, we can stand firm against evil if we understand that God, good, is the only power. The Bible assures us, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
I was only five years old when there was an incident that required me to resist evil – and quickly. My mother had begun the serious study of Christian Science and had enrolled me in the Sunday School of our local branch Church of Christ, Scientist. There I was learning about God as divine Love, and I naturally embraced the idea of trusting in His goodness.
One day, as I got out of the car, the door shut on my fingers and I was unable to free myself. Despite the pain and fear, I began repeating out loud a truth I’d learned in Sunday School: “Good is my God, and my God is good” (Mary Baker Eddy, “Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 206). Over and over, I insisted on this truth. It just welled up within me and was bursting out!
Of course, my mother was quick to come to my aid and let me loose. I’m sure she was praying for me too, because the results were immediate. The pain left, and there was no evidence of injury to my fingers.
Looking back, what I most remember was the confidence I felt in God’s love and tender care. I trusted Him without hesitation and knew that He was protecting me. Even today I can still feel that comforting oneness with God.
This experience taught me how turning immediately to God brings quick results. My insistence on the spiritual fact of God’s omnipotent goodness completely shut out the false suggestion of accident and injury. And once this lie had gone from my thought, the effects of it were gone too.
In “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mrs. Eddy states, “Resist evil – error of every sort – and it will flee from you. Error is opposed to Life. We can, and ultimately shall, so rise as to avail ourselves in every direction of the supremacy of Truth over error, Life over death, and good over evil, and this growth will go on until we arrive at the fulness of God’s idea, and no more fear that we shall be sick and die” (p. 406).
Attuned to the truth of being, we realize that our security lies in God. We don’t wait for the material situation to change, but rather seek shelter in the truth of our identity as a spiritual idea of God, governed only by Him and never subject to the so-called laws of matter. The best defense is to keep watch over our thinking, staying alert and prepared for material distractions that would obstruct this truth.
If we have fortified our thinking with the understanding of God through daily prayer and study, we can readily spot offending errors of thought and eradicate them quickly. Standing in faith, we can sing:
I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
Where is death’s sting? where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
(Henry Francis Lyte, “Christian Science Hymnal,” No. 8)
Originally published in the April 2026 issue of The Christian Science Journal.
