Article September 17, 2018 Issue

Ask God

Mark Swinney

With hopeful anticipation, we can always ask God for help—help in curing something, help in healing a relationship, help in fulfilling an obligation. In the many times I’ve done this, I’ve found it most helpful when such prayers stem from a desire to understand more clearly the overall nature of God.

This is because the more deeply we love and comprehend God, the easier it is to recognize the beauty and spiritual perfection God has already created. This approach helps to squelch uncertainty, and uplifts prayer so it becomes more about how to confidently “be still, and know that I am God,” as it says in the Bible (Psalms 46:10). This helps us understand God as much more than an anthropomorphic figure out of a 16th-century painting, and we come to know God as an entirely nonmaterial, purely good presence that is divine Spirit, Mind, and Love. Prayer broadens as God’s nature and ever-presence are acknowledged, understood, and even cherished. And this shift in thought heals.

When I was a kid, a friend who’d had an accident was informed that for the rest of his life he would be unable to use his hand normally. I remember pondering that prediction a bit. It simply didn’t seem that such a forecast could have the authority of God, good, behind it. We both, along with his parents, were Christian Scientists, and we all began praying.

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