A friend told me that it was hard to pray when feeling depressed and under the weather. I understood what they were saying, but thought, “It’s important to remember how much easier it is to pray than to suffer. Suffering is hard. Prayer is not hard.”
The temptation to think “It’s hard to pray,” is a twisted argument of mortal mind.
Prayer is not difficult. It’s the act of turning to God for help, a willingness to open thought to Truth and Love, and a desire to get better. Prayer can be very simple. Anyone can do it at any time, and under any circumstance.
Prayer brings amazing benefits that improve our outlook, restores hope, inspires thought, and opens experience for healing. It’s much easier to be on the receiving end of God’s grace than to cling to beliefs that produce suffering.
Suffering is not an ominous task master that we are beholden to. It’s an error of belief to be destroyed with spiritual truth. Prayer opens thought to the truth that dissolves suffering.
It’s much easier to pray than to suffer. Choose prayer, and leave suffering behind.
‘The depth of the Lord’s Prayer’:
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/19bocf7opxe?s=e
Thank you, Angie, for sharing this. We have just had a gathering so all of us could pray together for church, community, and world, and we completed our 20 minutes with the Lord’s Prayer. The blessings of all of us praying together will never been seen by those to whom it blessed, but the Truth of Love is indeed omnipresent.
Oh, I like to think that since we have eternal Life we will see the blessings
When I read the opening sentence I was reminded of a verse in Robert Holden’s book “Hello Happiness” – “No matter how hard you try it is impossible to be grateful and depressed”.
I am grateful to be reminded today that I always have a choice about how I respond in any situation.
Thank you Evan for the love and inspiration you share each day and all the SpiritView family.
Pray, don’t sway!
To day is big with blessings. Giving of our thoughts to those who can not or do not believe in prayer is our gift to those who’s faith is faint. When we are feeling down that is our cue to wake-up and be of service to ourselves as well as service to others in Christ. Giving a cup of cold water whether it be for others or ourselves is our service to God. Linda
Thank you! The simplicity in this is powerful.
Sometimes it is the words of a hymn that can turn the tide …one of my personal favourites. Hymn 202
‘ O dreamer leave thy dreams for joyful waking
O captive rise and sing for thou art free.
The Christ is here all dreams of error breaking,
Unloosing bonds of all captivity. ‘
Happy day❣️
Praising God is mentioned so often in the Bible. Praise is a form of gratitude like Rubi mentions above. Thanking God for the blessings you have now is powerful and can help depression or discouragement. We can always find some good things in our lives to praise God about. I used to wonder why God needs praise – He/She knows she is great and is omniscient. Then I realized that I needed to know that God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient caring for all and align my thought with God and spiritual law. It’s difficult to be praising God and thinking depressed or discouraged thoughts at the same time as they are conflicting and opposites. Sometimes you can turn affirming truths or spiritual laws into praise. Thank you God for being here now. Thank you God for being the One Mind and my only Mind today. Thank you God for being omnipotent and being bigger than this problem. Thank you God for the loving family I have. Thank you God for caring for me, mine and all. Thanking God is very active and is similar to when Jesus thanked God BEFORE a seeming miracle. Sometimes I count on my fingers as I affirm or say these and try to use up all of my fingers 3-5 times or 3 X 10 = 30 or 5 X 10 praises = 50. I hold up a finger as I affirm a truth or praise. Usually by the time I’m up to 30-50 the doubt, fear, depression starts to lift and counteract quite a few depressed or discouraged thoughts. It helps to fill thought with praise. I think I’ve heard for every erroneous thought or look at error, take 10 looks at the Christ, Truth. Now we’re talking 100 praises a day at least or pouring in Truth through floodtides of Love. Mrs. Eddy said she prayed 3X a day like the Biblical character so it could be 300 praises a day. Putting more on the scale of God’s power and care and less on the side of doubt and despair. Truth soon outweighs dark thoughts in our consciousness. I’ve found, too, that I don’t have to totally have confidence in every praise I say, but as I keep affirming them, I’m reminded how true they have been so many times in the past in experiences that it builds trust in them. By the time I do 30 to 100 of them – sometimes writing them down on lined notepaper – I’m feeling much more joyful and confident in God’s ability to govern the situation. I need to do this about a situation facing a loved one this week – thanks for the reminder to do this today instead of humanly trying to figure out a solution or worrying.
Thank you! I can bring my fingers with me wherever I go and remember to count on my fingers blessings and praise and truths. Years ago during our noon testimony service a woman came in who I had not seen before and she said that her elderly aunt had wandered out of the house at night in the middle of a freezing rain storm and then was found under what seemed impossible coincidences down a steep slope of blackberry vines. The woman was repeatedly Tapping the fingers on her right hand against her right thumb. She was asked what she was doing. She answered she was repeating the words to a hymn “Cared for, watched over, beloved, and protected, walk year with courage each step of the way.” I added that to my frequent activities especially when my right hand could be free, and now I can add your idea while waiting at a red light or in a bank or grocery line or sitting on the toilet or standing over a pot on the stove or when aroused in the middle of the night or going on a walk. Or when I’m hearing someone rant fear and hate or self-justification. Or when I need to stretch my fingers or wiggle my toes. Thanks!
Oh so grateful not only to Evan but to SpiritViewers for all wonderful contributions, such as the suggestions for erroneous thinking above from Lindajane. When mortal mind suggestions against Truth assail us, these suggestions for concrete steps we can immediately take to rise into the realm of answered prayer are invaluable!
thank you for that
Sounds like common sense but Thank You for pointing it out so clearly. Someone once told me Christian Science and common sense – the 2 CS’s. It is a pleasure to turn to God with my problem today and not wallow around in a dark place mentally.
Great commentary Evan. Thank you. It’s very comforting to know that we can always change our perception of any situation. “A healing in Christian Science is an awakening to what is already true, not a recovery of something that was lost.” Article by Laurance Doyle.
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/m454hgzpuc?s=e
Another quote by Laurance Doyle: “Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” So if it doesn’t make you free, then it’s not the truth. You don’t have to believe it, and can’t really know it. Here’s the most practical thing you can do: Be quiet, and consider that you are spiritual and immortal, not physical. Consider that you’re a spiritual idea, and then listen to what God is telling you about that. It’s a very simple thing to do with practical results in your daily life. You will find that your body will start to be healed, limitations will start to disappear, and the ideas of God will begin to constantly flow in your life and meet all your needs.”
Starting with Evan’s post thanks to All for today’s harvest ! Great article also thank you Angie, a fresh look on the Lord’prayer.
Very helpful – thank you Evan. Other comments also appreciated.
Thanks to all!
Evan I love this line,
“The temptation to think ‘It’s hard to pray,’ is a twisted argument of mortal mind.”
I thought of the first line of Hymn 475, “Forget not who you are o child of God.” Error uses one of its favorite tricks to distract us and make us forget the reality of our unchanging good: it likes to tangle our thoughts up with so much negative, worrisome chatter that turning to God seems hard. Thanks for reminding us that turning to our loving father-mother God is the most natural thing to do, and that “it’s easier to pray than to suffer.” Love to all of the dear SpiritView community!
Yes, I agree wholly! Sometimes it seems hard but when you know it will lead to relief it’s so worth it. And much easier than suffering! I too like Evan’s statement “The temptation to think ‘It’s hard to pray,’ is a twisted argument of mortal mind.” I’ll try to remember that one. Thanks Evan. (=
Thank you so much. I badly need a healing at this moment and this is such helpful strong advice. Lv from Mary in Irelanf