One lesson I’ve learned from playing tennis is that you won’t be successful if you hit each ball with a half-hearted response. You have to put your full might, strength and follow through into each stroke or the ball will end up in the net, out of bounds or in the wrong place on the other side of the net.
The same rule applies to success in prayer. Half-hearted responses are not going to get the results. There needs to be a full commitment to following through with the truth until the healing idea is fully discerned.
The first great commandment of the Bible is to “Love God with all your heart…” That’s quite a demand.
The guidance doesn’t allow for loving God with just a part of your heart. There is no concession for divided loyalty.
If you sit down to read a book with a lukewarm or nonexistent desire to finish the book, you may get easily distracted with other priorities after flipping a few pages. “Oh, I should go for a walk,” or, “I’ll read it another time,” cause you to put the book aside. And the list of excuses may grow until the book remains forgotten.
Finishing a prayer is similar. If we have other priorities, our prayer may never complete, and the sought blessing remains elusive.
Prayer is about gaining a fresh new understanding of God that lifts thought to a higher spiritual level than ever before. It’s about unseeing any looming evil with the omnipresence of God until that sense of evil is vanquished. You know you’re to the end of your prayer when God’s good is so real and so tangible to you that the evil is no more. You have no doubt that you are healed. And you feel and look healed too.
So, go all the way with your prayer! Don’t stop short. Don’t let mortal mind get you distracted with lesser priorities. Seek Truth with your whole heart. Put your whole mental might, effort and strength into realizing the truth that meets your need. The answer to your prayer is present in thought and you have spiritual sense to discern it.
The whole hearted prayer will find a whole hearted response coming right back from the giver of all gifts.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take” Proverbs 3:5,6, NLT
Thanks Evan. Its so true that a total commitment and wholehearted loyalty to God, good is required to fulfil the first commandment. Error disappears under the microscope of Truth. I agree its not always easy, but as you rightly mention, if we patiently persist with the Truth we shall be victorious and see the reality of good and the unreality and nothingness of error in the form of sin, disease or death.
Great Evan, The correct solution for “delayed” healing!!
Evan, thank you so much, This is just the reminder that I needed now and thank you Nergish and Doug, your comments “hit the spot”
I am recognizing mortal mind in the common distractions we have in all we do.
I am a student of C/S since 1963, but always had difficulty in demonstrating healing when it came to disease. I am now bedridden with Nurse Aide assistants who aren’t C/S. I haven’t given up to the mortal suggestion that prayer isn’t helpful.
Dear Tobias keep in mind that your nurses are guided by the divine Mind in the loving care of you. That God is ever-present and it the only power. He loves you!
This is a Beautiful description of Prayer in Christian Science. Thank you, Evan! I am finding that it takes a whole lot of discipline to Pray – to really stick with it right to the end result of Healing! I often find myself waffling and wavering a lot…..maybe that’s why our Mother Church has asked us to read and study Mrs. Eddy’s Message: “Choose Ye”. In it she says, “We cannot serve two masters.” The World offers so many distractions and temptations……..how many people on the Planet today are really giving their full allegiance to Spirit? I’m so grateful that Christian Science follows Jesus’ teachings to the complete Healing end!
Thank you Evan and all those that commented. Much appreciated. (=