Article July 9, 1979 Issue

What is the prayer of faith?

BARBARA CORBETT MYERS

"I believe in God, but it doesn't do any good. God doesn't seem to answer my prayers. I guess I just don't have enough faith." If we ever find ourselves thinking along these lines, we can remember Christ Jesus' instruction, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."^{ Mark 11:24;}

Perhaps we've felt like that despairing father whose son had a history of violent seizures. This case had even become the focus of a public controversy when Jesus' disciples failed to heal it. A crowd had gathered. When the Master reached the scene, the father appealed to him. Jesus answered, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." The father replied, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."^{ 9:23, 24;} Then Jesus showed that faith springing from a spiritual understanding of God is equal to any emergency. He promptly healed the son right in front of the crowd.

"Unbelief" sometimes tries to get in the way of our prayer. The remedy is faith. The Bible tells us, "The prayer of faith shall save the sick ...; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."^{ James 5:15;} On page one of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy puts it this way: "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,—a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love."