To a certain extent, praying might be likened to reading. When you open a book, you expect to gain information or enjoyment from it. You don't tell the book what you think, however; you respond to the ideas it contains. You "listen" to what it has to tell you, and then you can go on to make those ideas your own.

The analogy cannot be carried too far; divine Mind is infinitely greater than ideas contained on the printed page. But in a similar way, we need to listen, in prayer, to the answers God is providing for us. Our part in prayer is not so much pleading with God to do something as it is listening to Him, humbly accepting His will, however contrary to our human planning it may seem. The divine Mind is always available to us in the biggest as well as in the smallest—even humdrum—happenings of daily life.

Does this reversal of role in prayer, this listening instead of talking, seem to deprive you of your cherished privilege of pouring out your innermost longings to the loving Father-Mother, God? Have no fear. God blesses our heart stirrings. Listening to Him purifies them, separates the material from the spiritual, and allows nothing to cloud our vision of the Christ-example.

Through this true listening, God expresses Himself in us. Our prayer becomes an affirmation of His infinite omnipotence and omniaction. As we gain a closer communion with the divine Principle, Love, we are progressively freed of the limiting belief that life is in a material body and environment. The allness of Spirit dawns on our thought, flooding it with the shadeless light of Truth.

A useful lesson can be found in I Kings, where the story is told of Solomon's vision. The writer explains: "Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father." The young king dreamed that he heard God asking what he would like to receive from the Lord. Humbled by the magnitude of the task of governing Israel, he replied, "Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad." ^{I Kings 3:3, 9.} The New English Bible offers the translation "Give thy servant, therefore, a heart with skill to listen, so that he may govern thy people justly and distinguish good from evil."

Solomon's inspired request was granted, and he was also given, we're told, the human abundance he had not asked for. This passage highlights the role of listening in prayer and shows humility—the recognition of man's total dependence on the divine all-power—to be essential to our receptivity to good.

How does one learn to listen? We start by fervently longing to hear God's voice. Then we resolutely need to shut out material, earthly thinking until we are able to wait, quietly and confidently, for divine ideas. The ideas will come, perhaps slowly at first. But as we practice this approach in prayer we begin to recognize these ideas more and more easily. In all branches of learning the student advances by using the facts he has already grasped. Just so, the study of Christian Science requires the demonstration of the spiritual laws already gained. We must use the talents entrusted to us in order to attain even wider opportunities for glorifying God.

The Gospels tell us that Jesus constantly turned to his heavenly Father for direction. The Master is our Way-shower. We need to turn to God as he did, and the Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus" ^{Phil. 2:5.} is available to us at every stage of our experience. But the listening to God is our part. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy states: "Thought passes from God to man, but neither sensation nor report goes from material body to Mind. The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man." ^{Science and Health, p. 284.}

When the door of human thought is shut to material thinking and open to divine Mind, the heartfelt desires expressed have in truth been inspired by God. The dedicated longing to live in accordance with His law will be illuminated—and rewarded—by the divine Principle, Love, and our human needs will be fully met. As Christ Jesus so unequivocally stated: "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." ^{Matt. 6:32, 33.}

This holy experience of the radiance of Spirit, reached through waiting on God, is not the ultimate aim of our prayer. It is, rather, a repeatedly new beginning—the hilltop from which to advance to the next mount of spiritual progress.