By Sara Ann Lincoln
Christian Science
Prayer is choosing a healing consciousness one thought at a time. Such ‘praying without ceasing’ (I Thess. 5:17) fosters a deeper sense of humility and trust in God.
Prayer is also a formalized recognition of God. Meetings and meals are preceded by someone acknowledging God with thanks, requests, and promises, thus prayer is part of the way we do things. Acknowledging God with words, like being polite in public and private relationships, elevates the moment. Of deeper significance, however, is the fact that desire is prayer, and prayer really happens as my desires yield to God’s desire that I know myself as the reflection of divine Mind, Truth, Life, and Love. Spoken prayer can be a prelude to prayer, like picking up a fork is a prelude to eating a meal.
Prayer is primarily God’s call and man’s response, not man’s call and God’s response. In Science and Health, Christian Science identifies seven synonyms that help us learn and live the nature of God by responding to God’s calls, which also enable: Mind calls me to identify with intelligence and inspiration. Instead of complaining about limitations, I say yes. Love calls me to feel loved, not left out. Life calls me to express life and health, not disease and decline. Truth calls me to challenge and disprove human theories about the certainty of sin, disease, and death. Spirit calls me to see that matter is never part of the equation. Soul calls me to see that this is the day the Lord has made. Principle calls me to understand that God’s law of oneness, sun and sunshine, is not mixed with separation any more than mathematics is mixed with mistakes.
Prayer is a desire for holiness, meaning wholeness, nothing lacking, having all. Only when I know I have it all, from God, and feel grateful, will I confidently enjoy and share abundance. “Are we benefited by praying?” Christian Science proceeds to answer in these words by Mary Baker Eddy: “Yes, The desire which goes forth hungering after righteousness is blessed of our Father, and it does not return unto us void.”
And what results do I expect from prayer? Such a sense of God-given dominion that disease, discord, and death cannot stick or stay.
The Unity in the Community Project was first started in August of 2006 at a Unity in the Community meeting at the Islamic Society of Greater Lansing located in East Lansing, MI. It was a project created by the Publisher, Rina Risper to see how different or similar answers were to the same question about healing, prayer and religion. The New Citizens Press welcomes answers to “What is prayer, and what results do you expect from it?” send us an e-mail at tncp@comcast.net or write us. Please also send us a picture and your denomination.