UPFRONT May 29, 2006 Issue

Scientific prayer—the effective balm

PATRICIA KADICK, STAFF EDITOR

The Holy Bible recounts story after story of people engaged in prayers that involve pleading, demanding, listening, and expecting help from God. People like Moses, Peter, and Paul. And of course Jesus, the greatest healer of all time. Jesus' prayers were unequivocally expectant of healing, and at the same time filled with gratitude to his Father-God who made everyone and everything good.

At the same time, the prophet Jeremiah's plea, "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?" still troubles hearts and minds to this day (8:22). Even prayerful people are aware that wanting, deserving, and expecting healing have not always equated with positive results. And everyone truly deserves the assurance of health and peace for themselves and for their families.

This week's articles delve not only into each individual's God-given right to expect good but also into the right to find it by knowing how to pray effectively. This prayer calls on God as the loving Lawgiver, as the divine Principle that heals all ills. "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick," wrote Mary Baker Eddy, "is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,—a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 1).