Article April 23, 1966 Issue

Receiving the Right Answer to Prayer

ELEANOR ZELMAN KAY

"If some of our prayers were answered the way we want them to be, we d be ruined at our own request," said a Christian Scientist. Sometimes we may think our prayers are not being answered when our human outlining has not materialized according to our desires. Actually, the very denial may be the answer—an answer with greater scope and more appeal than our limited sense of personal desire has envisioned. Often a wise and loving parent may refuse a request because it is not for a child's own good and may offer in its stead that which is far better, even though the limited, immature, or inexperienced thought may not recognize this to be true. Or the parent may see the necessity for an answer which supplies a much-needed correction, lesson, or even reproof perhaps.

So our Father-Mother God, Principle, directs the answers to our prayers so that they are in conformity with that which is good, wise, safe, and harmonious. Perhaps the child in its ignorance may cry for what it thinks it wants and thus miss the joy of the better offer. Is not the grown-up often blinded by a similar sense of self which would attempt to cloud his recognition and acceptance of answered prayer?

An answer is a reply or response to a question or a call. This fact makes it evident that before one can be in a position to receive an answer, he must first reach out for it. The answer is the complement to the query. It is the response to the call.

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