Longing and prayer

Jane Partis McCarty

Have you ever longed for something? Most of us have. The poor person might long to be rich. The single person might long to be married. Longing seems to be a natural state of thought for a lot of folks. But is it natural to go through life continually yearning for things and feeling incomplete and unsatisfied? One might conclude that constant longing is inevitable because it seems we're always lacking something. Dissatisfaction is a way of life for people who look to matter for satisfaction.

There is, however, another way of looking at life, and that way brings freedom and satisfaction. It is based on Spirit, God, as the source of our life and of all that we need.

When I was a teenager, I yearned to date. I remember leaning over the back of the living room sofa, praying, "Please God, let me have a date!" This wasn't really an effective way to pray though, because I was begging instead of trusting His care. In my heart, I knew that my prayer was not proceeding from a spiritual standpoint. I attended a Christian Science Sunday School, and I had been taught to pray as Christ Jesus prayed. I knew the Lord's Prayer. It begins with a statement of truth about God: "Our Father which art in heaven" (Matt. 6:9). God knows only heavenly harmony, and He imparts only harmony to His creation. He tenderly cares for each of His offspring. I had learned that begging isn't the right basis for prayer from this passage in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy: "God is not influenced by man. The 'divine ear' is not an auditory nerve. It is the all-hearing and all-knowing Mind, to whom each need of man is always known and by whom it will be supplied" (p. 7).