Article May 31, 1930 Issue

The Prayer of Affirmation

HAROLD C. MASTIN

Our Master, Christ Jesus, has given us a remarkable recipe for righteous prayer in the words, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." This manner of praying is different from that which mortals commonly employ. It is based upon the realization that God's work is done, and that man by reflection already possesses all good. "Believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them"! The manifestation of good, which we affirm to be already spiritually existent, will follow this prayer of spiritual understanding.

The prayer which asks God to do something for us, or to give us some desirable thing, is amiss when it begins with the false premise that God is withholding from us some good we should have, and that as a result of our pleading He may be induced to bestow this good upon us. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, says (p. 2), "God is not moved by the breath of praise to do more than He has already done, nor can the infinite do less than bestow all good, since He is unchanging wisdom and Love."

The prayer of affirmation, which unfolds to us the real and perfect gifts of God and replaces discord with harmony, may seem at first to be a difficult process, and yet it is quite as simple in practice as is the working of a mathematical problem. In solving a problem in mathematics, one begins with the conviction that the correct solution exists, and that an intelligent application of certain rules will reveal it. Thus, finding the solution is wholly a mental process. So, in true prayer one begins by being mentally assured of the fact that every righteous need is already supplied by infinite Love. The prayer of affirmation is thus an intelligent realization of the eternal fact that God is All and ever present, and that consequently His goodness, harmony, and abundance are man's to enjoy.

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