Editorial October 26, 1987 Issue

Thought-taking versus kingdom-seeking

Allison W. Phinney, Jr.

Many efforts to be healed through prayer fall into the category of thought-taking rather than kingdom-seeking. They are therefore not likely to be successful—at least if we're to believe what Christ Jesus says on the subject.

He asked his disciples a question: "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?"^{ Matt. 6:27.} Wasn't Jesus implying that human thought-taking avails little, that it can't really change anything?

Efforts of the thought-taking variety try to serve two masters—something Jesus warned against. They are invariably halfhearted because they are based on half-truths. They acknowledge God's goodness to an extent but they also accept the reality of an ordinary material sense of life. They "take thought" in regard to this sense of life, perhaps dutifully praying to improve it but nevertheless supposing the human condition is the most basic framework for everything and then proceeding from that point of view.

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