Hard prayer?
As a child I was told that if I prayed really hard, my prayers would be answered. So when I really wanted something, I’d close my eyes and pray with clenched fists and a scrunched-up face, straining as hard as I could.
Needless to say, that approach didn’t work. At one point, someone said maybe I needed a stronger faith. Later on, I laughed when I heard about “teabag Christians” who only pray when things begin to boil. So for a long time prayer puzzled me: it was either hard or easy, or a last resort. In Sunday School I learned that Jesus made prayer and faith seem easy, saying mountains could be moved with an amount of faith as tiny as a mustard seed (see Matthew 17:20 ), and promising that if I believed in the Christ, I could do what he did, like walk on water or raise the dead (see John 14:12 ). I wondered, could prayer really do that?
Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, resolved my boyhood bewilderment. On page 14 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Eddy makes a remarkable declaration that set me on a lifetime course of answered questions: “Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual,—neither in nor of matter,—and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well. Sorrow is turned into joy when the body is controlled by spiritual Life, Truth, and Love. Hence the hope of the promise Jesus bestows: ‘He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; …’ ”
For a long time prayer puzzled me: it was either hard or easy, or a last resort.
What God makes stands forever, so nothing can ever change my status as a child of God with divine dominion over anything awry in human experience. As crying children run to their parents’ bed at night, seeking comfort from scary nightmares or spooky shadows, we turn to our Father-Mother God for solace. Our heavenly Parent won’t leave us afraid in the dark. Jesus proved through healing that, like bad dreams, the evils we fear are not real.
After the Savior healed the epileptic boy (see Matthew 17:14–21 ), whom the disciples had failed to heal, the disciples asked why they couldn’t do it. Jesus answered, “Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”
Christian Science taught me that knowing God is my life’s most important work. Human frailty fades as I strive to see that only what God knows is real and true. God does not hide behind the facade of an inscrutable Bible, awaiting academic inquiry before handing out nuggets of truth to astute scholars. Our heavenly Father wants all His children to understand Him, and this Christly rapport restores harmony.
Over time, I also learned that sin is its own punishment. I was glad to see that God doesn’t punish, because I could not believe in a God of love who ruled like a heavenly Santa Claus, keeping tabs on who’s been naughty or nice. God loves us too much to allow us to continue in any wrongdoing, and His correcting is always an outgrowth of pure love—never anger or retribution. Nor does God make a faulty me, a creature needing fixing or constant tweaking. In truth I’m not working toward heavenly harmony in my spiritual journey—I’m already there! “Because you cannot walk on the water and raise the dead, you have no right to question the great might of divine Science in these directions,” Mrs. Eddy writes. “Be thankful that Jesus, who was the true demonstrator of Science, did these things, and left his example for us. In Science we can use only what we understand” (Science and Health, p. 329 ).
Understanding the Bible unlocks the untold treasures God has for all of us. We move our mountains of sickness and sorrow by expressing the wonders God has wrought. And we don’t have to clench our fists and faces to do it—or wait until things get hot and bubble over!
