Article September 1, 1923 Issue

Prayer and Thanksgiving

ESSIE E. ROGERS

PAUL in his letter to the Philippians admonishes them, "In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." The spirit of thanksgiving and gratitude should be, and is, an essential part of all prayer. True scientific prayer is impossible without it; for such prayer is, in itself, the grateful recognition of the fact that God and His creation alone are real and eternal. Then thought rises above the mists of doubt and fear to rejoice in the apprehension of evil's unreality, and of our ability, through the understanding of Truth as taught in Christian Science, to destroy any seeming reality of which it boasts.

Our Leader tells us in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 210): "It is plain that nothing can be added to the mind already full. There is no door through which evil can enter, and no space for evil to fill in a mind filled with goodness." It is apparent, then, that there is no room for discouragement, fear, or doubt in the consciousness flooded with gratitude and thanksgiving. Gratitude, in its last analysis, is the realization of God's omnipresence and omnipotence; so we see it is not necessary to wait until the material senses tell us there is something to be grateful for.

One of the most conspicuous instances of this attitude of thankfulness and gratitude, when to mortal sense there was nothing to justify it, was Jesus' experience at the tomb of Lazarus. In spite of the fact that Jesus had spent many hours with Lazarus and his sisters, imparting the truth to them as he had received it from his Father, and explaining to them the continuity of Life, they had become completely mesmerized by the evidence of material sense and were accepting death as a reality, as were all the others who stood about. Jesus alone saw the occasion as just another opportunity to prove, as he had done twice before, the power of Life over death. Is it any wonder that Jesus, whose consciousness was so filled with the joyous recognition of the omnipresence and omnipotence of God, who is Life, could say with such sublime authority, "Lazarus, come forth"? And so, just in the proportion that we make our declarations of Truth from the fullness of a heart that recognizes and therefore rejoices in the certainty of ever present Life and Love, we, too, can speak "as one having authority" to every phase of error.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Prayer and Thanksgiving

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access