Article May 1, 1978 Issue

A daily demand: defense

JOE ELLER

When one takes up the study and practice of Christian Science, wonderful things take place. Through Science illness and disability are healed. New meaning and affection come to family relationships. Careers leap ahead, new abilities and skills appear, old inadequacies disappear. These things happen because the individual begins to realize an immortal truth—that he is truly a spiritual idea, the image of God.

We can be sure of consistent progress in Christian Science. And we can protect that progress. To do so, however, we may need to deepen the daily praying we do in our own defense.

The practice of defense through prayer is not new. Because Christ Jesus was appointed by the Father-Mother to his mission, we have come to know him as the Way-shower, the divinely anointed one. But even Jesus, whose commission from God was clear, spent much time in prayer. In Luke we read, "He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God."^{Luke 6:12;} Indeed, the import of the Gospels is that Jesus prayed for himself often.