Article April 13, 1968 Issue

Importunate Prayer

ANGUS JOHN MACDONALD

One of Jesus' disciples asked him to teach them to pray after the manner of John's teaching to his disciples. Jesus, as described in the eleventh chapter of Luke, gave them the Lord's Prayer and immediately followed it with a parable. He told of a man going to a friend at midnight to borrow bread for a visitor. The friend refused, saying that the door was shut, his children in bed with him, and so he could not get up. After telling this story, Jesus explained, "I say unto you, Though he will not rise and given him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth." Luke 11:8;

This need for urgent persistence in prayer was recognized by Mrs. Eddy. She says, "One thing I have greatly desired, and again earnestly request, namely, that Christian Scientists, here and elsewhere, pray daily for themselves; not verbally, nor on bended knee, but mentally, meekly, and importunately." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 127;

The importunate or persistent affirmation that the all-power and ever-presence of God includes each of His ideas is basic to our metaphysical healing work. The student of Christian Science strives for a spiritual understanding of the nature of God and His creation, man and the universe. He has learned how necessary this spiritual understanding is in purifying thought for the healing of himself and others. Importunate in his gratitude for the omnipresence of divine power, he sees God's law in operation right where sickness or sin is claiming a right to share in the government of His creation. Knowing the allness of God includes unknowing the presence of anything unlike Him.

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