Article November 29, 1982 Issue

What are we praying for?

EVELYN M. S. DUCKETT

A little boy asked a little girl: "Do you believe in God?" And she replied: "What will He do to me if I say no?"

The child's innocent wit underscores a critical point. Believing in God is much more than a means of avoiding punishment. And prayer is so much more than asking for something we want or trying to get out of something we don't want. Prayer is an innate sense of good in each of us, reaching out to the source of infinite good, which is God.

Whether or not we believe in Him, God is not a dispenser of penalties. God is the perfect, unchanging Principle of good. He knows only good, and all good is ultimately traceable back to Him. Mrs. Eddy writes: "All that worketh good is some manifestation of God asserting and developing good." Message to The Mother Church for 1900, p. 10.

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