Righteous Prayer

ELFRIEDE EBBINGHAUS

"Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God," sings the psalmist. The Bible contains the assurance that such a one's trust will not be in vain, and the divine admonition through the psalmist, "Call upon me in the day of trouble," is followed straightway by the promise, "I will deliver thee." Did not the great Master say, "Ask, and it shall be given you"? The admonition to ask of God may be heeded by many, but the attendant promise, "and it shall be given you," does not as a rule seem to be fulfilled. It was evidently with reference to such cases that the apostle uttered the words, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss."

Like the strayed children of Israel, mortals in the course of centuries have gradually turned away from the source of light, because of their false beliefs based on the deceptive testimony of material sense. Their concept of God and His creation has been darkened more and more, and the number of those whose lives were in accordance with the law of Life, Truth, and Love, grew steadily smaller, until the prayers of Christians remained unanswered. This was due largely to their failure to understand what constitutes righteous prayer, or else to the conditions which make an answer to such prayer possible. Jesus said, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." The asking, then, must be done in Christ's name.

This cannot be interpreted to mean that a reference to Christ Jesus' achievements would induce God to bestow a blessing upon us. Our Master could not have meant a mediatorial prayer, intercession through him. This becomes apparent by his further words, "I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you," which follow shortly after the above passage. In order to pray in the name of Christ Jesus, much more is needed than a blind, passive reliance on the Lord. He surely meant that we must pray in the way that he taught, the effectiveness of which was attested by his demonstration. He showed by his ministry that God, divine Mind, was to him the only causation. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and caused the lame to walk; even death was no obstruction to him, as he proved by raising those who had succumbed to it. He never conceded aught to matter, or endowed it with any power. To him there was only one harmonious state of being, of which God is the creator, and which He sustains and maintains by reason of His infinite wisdom, truth, and love.

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