Article December 29, 1986 Issue

What are we asking for in our healing prayer?

When one is struggling with sickness, it's natural to want relief. But for spiritual healing, something more than the desire for comfort is needed.

Harry N. Levinson

Few experiences make us feel our closeness to God more than healing that comes through prayer, and thousands can testify that prayer has healed them. As students of the Bible wanting to learn more about prayer that heals, we may need to consider the question "What are we asking for in prayer?"

If our prayer to God is merely a plea that He heal us, this is not very different from asking a human being to give us something we want. But because the Scriptures show us that God is infinite Spirit, that He is the divine Mind, which Christ Jesus expressed, we know that God must be infinitely different from a mortal, finite person. Thus to pray Scripturally, we must pray with a new focus, even a spiritual sense of Him, as the one, infinite God, who has already created man in His own image. In the chapter "Prayer" in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes: "The mere habit of pleading with the divine Mind, as one pleads with a human being, perpetuates the belief in God as humanly circumscribed,—an error which impedes spiritual growth."^{Science and Health, p. 2.}

One evening I was seeking healing from a chest cold that had become aggravated during the day. I prayed diligently in affirming the truth I had learned in Christian Science—that because Spirit, God, is perfect and harmonious, I must reflect these qualities now as His spiritual image. But I did not find immediate healing. I was grateful for some relief; and because I had met such a malady before through prayer, this gave me faith and conviction that I could meet it now. I continued to study and pray for some time and then went to bed. But I woke in the middle of the night somewhat uncomfortable, so I got up to study the Bible and Science and Health.

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