While driving to my office today, it struck me how often people get upset with God because they don’t receive what they pray for.
“God is supposed to be good,” they protest. “Why didn’t God give me what I asked for?”
I remembered what James in the Bible wrote, “You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss.” I interpret “to ask amiss” as asking for the wrong thing, or to request something that will not bring the right kind of benefit, at least not yet.
Two to three years after graduating from college and working on the family farm, I asked God to get me off the ranch into a different job. My request was not granted. I remained in place, and continued to fret, but also to grow spiritually. In later years, I realized my primary need at the time was not to get off the farm, but to learn larger lessons in life, for example to have more courage and confidence to stand up for what I knew was right. When I finally gained the confidence, and trust in God I needed, in this case, to leave the family business, I was able to exit with good effect. God was not going to let me leave the ranch unprepared for the next phase in my life, which was the Christian Science practice.
I’ve learned from similar experiences that the good we think we deserve may not be the good we most need. It pays to trust God’s plan.
God is a wise giver. The divine Provider gives what is in our best interest to receive at any given moment.
A trap many seekers fall into is identifying their good in a material way. For instance, in thinking they need a house, more money, a spouse, or a better skin condition. From surface glance, there is nothing wrong with having these things. But they are not the substance of good.
Good is God. God is Spirit. True goodness is spiritual.
It’s not a house that gives us home. It’s not money that makes us wealthy. It’s not another person that makes us complete. It’s not any condition on the body that makes us healthy. Divine Love provides the real substance of home, the riches of Life, a feeling of completeness, and enduring health.
All true goodness is spiritual coming from above and is first felt in the human experience as qualities of Love expressed. When our prayers are focused on seeking spiritual good, the sum and substance of God, rather than on material things, status or position, our prayers will be answered.
It’s a righteous prayer to seek spiritual mindedness and the things of Spirit.
The “prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
The prayer of the person seeking genuine spirituality will not be left wanting.
Should I stop praying altogether for a vision challenge believing this is what God wants for me? Could it be that God would want his children to grovel? I cannot care for myself and it is hard for me to think God would want this for me.
Jayne
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Anonymous said…
Should I stop praying altogether for a vision challenge believing this is what God wants for me? Could it be that God would want his children to grovel? I cannot care for myself and it is hard for me to think God would want this for me.
Jayne
Dear Jayne, I just want to reach out and squeeze your hand. God does not want that for you. You are his dear loved child and he delights in you.
I do not know where to turn and I am afraid! How do I move past the fearful thoughts that God would allow me to be blind?
Jayne
A dear friend once shared with me this thought. F.E.A.R is an acronym for “False Evidence Appearing Real”. When I feel fear I find myself quickly feeling a bit duped and then exploring the situation which began to make me think that anything could come between me and God. The idea that anything can do that is the false evidence.
I know the thought is incomplete, but I hope that it helps.
there is a phrase in unity of good … the infinite recognizes no disease. that makes sense. infinite good isn’t some mean puppeteer inflicting something nasty. You wouldn’t do that to your children, and surely God is at least as loving as that.
I have my own challenge right now and telling you this has helped me be clear about my own situation. Even if we seem to be in shadow, that loving warm light of God is shining always shining.
To Jayne at the top,
Definitely don’t stop praying! God’s will is never for suffering. God’s will is for strength, vision, well being. And you have it all in Spirit! And this is perhaps the hard part to grasp at times. To the material senses, disease seems real. But the material sense of things is always wrong. It cannot be trusted or believed. The material sense of things gets one discouraged, if believed. And that maybe is what you are presently grappling with–a material sense of who you are.
God did not create you a susceptible vulnerable mortal. God created you an indestructible eternal immortal! In this truth, there is hope and healing. Continue to “go for it!”
Hugs,
I have come to the conclusion that “ye ask and receive not” because there is no God out there granted answers to prayers. THe “ye ask amiss” argument doesn’t hold true, like the prayer that Jayne above has asked for. If by some chance there’s a healing, people say, “God answered my prayer” but if this were truly the case, Jayne’s prayer as well as countless others would also have been healed. How about a prayer like “God please bring peace into the world, please end hunger, please end violence that is all over the earth” Is that prayer asking amiss? Yet, it remains unanswered. What good does prayer do if the result is hit and miss? How can you rationalize the existence of God when prayers are only selectively answered?
To above,
I understand your dilemma in trying to figure out why some prayers are answered and others are not. Most of the answer lies in understanding God in the first place.
God is not a material world filled with material problems. And God is not a super-power overseeing a material world with material problems. God is Spirit. God is a universe of good.
The material world is a mortal mind world. It’s not God’s world. Jesus Christ came to show us the exit door out of the material sense of things. Jesus didn’t stay on earth to correct every evil. He ascended in thought to pure spiritual truth, and said follow me. He showed us how to be saved from evil. It wasn’t in asking God to fix things, so much as ascending in thought ourselves to ultimate spiritual truth. As he proved through experience, as our thought goes upward to Truth, evil has less of a hold on us until it’s seeming grasp is totally dissolved. This happened to Jesus in the ascension.
Prayer that starts from the basis of “I live in an evil world. God fix this evil.” will have only limited effect. But prayer that starts with, “God is Spirit. I am spiritual. God continue to help me see myself as spiritual living in a universe of goodness,” will bring progressive results. It lifts human thought out of error that binds it and brings it into a higher experience of Love where the shackles of evil fall away.
Hope that helps…
Many people are afraid of death but I am one of those people who will look kindly upon it and look forward to the peace of being out of the material world. People say after death will be just as material as before,but I can’t see how that would be so. There is no matter to contend with, and there’s only Spirit, right? Of course, people who make these claims have no proof of this. Now, there are many people who had an almost death experience and they all say it was wonderfully peaceful, nothing terrible at all. Should I be scared, I just have to think of all the horrific things that happen in the material world for which we have become so complacent, hungry children in our own country as we wage war and kill civilians and children throughout the Middle East, genocide, nuclear bombs dropped on innocent civilians without remorse for the cause of “peace”, animal cruelty, perversions, etc, etc and know that I’m going to a better place.
Evan, through your prayers heal Jayne and show her the power of God’s healing power as expressed through Christian Science.
Jayne has really reached out to all of us. She is certainly in my prayers right now. Hopefully in yours too!
Let’s all put our arms around her and give her a big squeeze of Love.
Love is the light that dispels the darkness and reveals sight undimmed by error of any kind.
This is Jayne……….you are ALL so dear to reach out to me in prayer. I pretty much broke the bank with Practitioner bills and now I cannot work because of the sight challenge. I feel I must ot be recptive enough to be helped by a CSP.
THANK YOU, each and every one of you for thinking of me! I send my love to you!
I think it would be great if practitioners only charged when there’s been a healing. That would help a lot. Is that not fair? SO many people need help but won’t ask for it because of the bills coming in.
ast remark, if that were the case a Practitioner would not be able to “make a living”. I, too wonder why they send a bill when the challenge persists. No, it doesn’t seem fair! Even when they make adjustments, it still runs into a large expense. No dis-respect intended, but if CS is based on laws, healing should be equitable for all.
Oh heavens, this discussion has gotten a bit off track. Healings happen everyday in a practitioner’s practice. Yes, some take longer than others, but you can’t find any health practitioner on the face of the earth without similar situations.
Yes, the laws of God are absolute, but they need to be humbly approached. Each practitioner is learning how to put them into practice more effectively everyday, just like you are.
This is not an attack on practitioners, but I think it’s important for them to know that many people don’t call them because they can’t pay for it; or they have already spent so much and are still working out the same problem and can’t justify spending more. It’s a very sad thing, because I understand pracitioners must make a living. Maybe someone who has already demonstrated abundance can be practitioners that help pro bono?
Evan, this is Jayne.
How can I be helped when I am suffering so? How can even a CSP help if I am so thick in material suffering?
Thank you!!
I always here people say “healing is happening every day” even though I’ve not seen it, and see more people that haven’t been healed.
Jayne, this is a challenge for all of us.
I’m looking forward to reading your post that you have been healed, because you’re as good as any to make a demonstration, and if God is all in all and all powerful as we hear he his, then it will become apparent to everyone! I’m looking for fruits, not just words.
To above,
Healing is happening everyday, but not always in the way people look for it. This is where we have to be especially humble to discern what lessons God is teaching us before the full fruition of our prayer is realized.
The omnipotence of God is evident to spiritual sense. It is not evident to material sense, and never will be. Material sense argues with Truth, puts it down, and even denies it. That’s what material sense is, is a denial of spiritual truth. So to really discern and experience the healing power of God, we have to vacate a material sense of things. When we do this, we mentally enter into the sanctuary of Spirit where the healing power of God is felt and experienced. Many people are successfully doing this everyday, and with good results.
Hi Jayne,
I value your persistence and determination to find the healing Truth!
The good news is, suffering cannot be “too thick” for Truth to penetrate. You are not out of God’s reach! Far from it. There is no situation you can get into in which the hand of Love cannot lift you out. And that is part of our prayer, to see you in the omniprsence of Love where Christ is at work empowering you to see.
Sight is beholding spiritual reality. You can do that! I know you can because you are obviously a thinking, reasoning, intelligently minded individual. It’s not another person that heals you, but Truth. As a child of God, you and Truth are at-one.
Christ touched the eyes of the blind man and asked him to look. He looked, and saw. Christ touches you with the hand of Love right where you are, and says, “Look.” And you can see too.
Lots of love
To Evan and all readers:
Thank you for all of your input, help and prayers! I promise I will let everyone know of progress. I have been anxiously waiting to see even a small bit of progress!
Evan, it seems like God knows my dispair but is waiting on me to be humble so that I may learn a lesson. It almost seems cruel that He can help but I have to grovel as a human. I am just so tired of living in a blurry world where I cannot participate in living!
Thank you all for your kind thoughts for me!!!
Oh, I’d add, you don’t have to grovel as a human. Rise up as a spiritual child of God! This is your divine right, and God-supported right too!
To the dear one above who asked Evan to pray for me……..thank you for your compassion! I so need a miracle but it seems to be out of reach at this time! You are so sweet to hold good thoughts for me! Thank you so very much! Jayne
Jayne, What are you afraid to see?