Article February 10, 1934 Issue

"Whatsoever ye shall ask"

JEAN M. SNYDER

Each and every one who is touched by divine Love through the ministrations of Christian Science is called upon to be a witness to God's goodness and mercy, and to bring forth fruits indicative of the eternal Principle of this Science. The Master's teaching on this point is definite; for he says, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." Jesus declared that whatsoever we ask of the Father in his name—whatsoever accords with the nature of the Christ—we shall receive. In order to do the works or "bring forth fruit," students of Christian Science must ask or pray for a more intimate association with the thoughts of the Father, divine Mind, for a closer acquaintance with our textbooks, which, our Leader declares, "contain and offer Science, with fixed Principle, given rule, and unmistakable proof" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 366).

Asking for spiritual understanding is not the prayer that asks amiss. To ask God for more understanding is virtually to acknowledge that we know we are constantly receiving it; and one does not pray truly when he believes that God is not hearing him. But in order that we may receive this understanding, the demand of Principle must be met, the loving demand that we give up belief in and dependence upon false gods and serve the one God. In response to this demand, a profound yearning to know, worship, and reflect God involves one in a struggle with material selfhood; but it also brings the dawn of a deep confidence in God, a sure sense of His presence, and an assurance of the power of His law. One receives spiritual light in proportion to his desire for the things of Spirit.

Mark quotes the Master as saying, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." One cannot believe or know that he has received good until in quiet communion with God, through the understanding that Christian Science gives of Him, he recognizes the spiritual fact that God, having created man in His likeness, has already bestowed upon him all that the Father hath. In contemplation of the one great cause and its laws, thought is lifted to behold the completeness, the perfection, of God and His creation; and it is then that prayer is seen as the realization of God's allness and His ability to give and do all good. Our Leader writes (No and Yes, p. 39), "Prayer is the utilization of the love wherewith He loves us." Whatever the human need may be, whether physical, moral, or financial, it but indicates that the basic need is to know God better. Thus, to fill this need one should find one's self reaching out in prayer for the kingdom of heaven, which is described in part in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 590) as "the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent Mind," and which Jesus taught must be sought before the needed things can be added.

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