Article March 10, 1923 Issue

Habit of Praying

A. WARENDORFF

THE habit of communing with God, divine Principle, at least three times a day, begets spiritual intimacy with the one Father, divine Love, which fosters trust in Him, and brings the assurance that all righteous prayer will be answered. For centuries, multitudes have prayed for daily bread. Surely they have not expected that God would send them, in some mysterious way, loaves of bread from heaven! When Jesus rebuked the temptation to make the stones into bread, he said, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Christian Science reveals the Word of God, and insures direct answer to the prayer for daily bread. All who will may partake freely of this spiritual food.

Great men and women in all ages have turned to God in prayer for guidance in time of peril. The beloved emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, was ever turning to God in prayer, constantly turning from the human to the divine will for guidance. Many of the Israelites of old had some perception of this, for we find them constantly turning to God for help in time of trouble; and whenever their cause was a righteous one, their prayers were answered.

True prayer may be said to be an acknowledgment that we of ourselves can do nothing; that without the aid of divine Principle we are helpless. It is, in short, a complete turning away from matter to Spirit as the source and fountain of all good. In our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, our revered Leader says (p. 7): "The 'divine ear' is not an auditory nerve. It is the all-hearing and all-knowing Mind, to whom each need of man is always known and by whom it will be supplied." What David, the valiant warrior, thought of prayer may be gleaned from two verses in the fifty-fifth psalm: "As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice." David had probably learned in his youth to pray aright. A like confidence that prayer will be answered should be an inspiration to all of us to-day.

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