Many years ago, I was looking for a condo to buy as a first home of my own. My efforts for many months included combing through newspaper ads, looking at everything in my metro area that was in my price range. But I soon found that I actually didn’t have a price range, because I didn’t make enough money to afford anything at all. At a point of great discouragement with the process, I finally decided to turn the whole thing over to a higher power—to God, the source of all good. At other times in my life, I had done this, praying and finding help and healing. So I stopped trying so hard through my own efforts and instead listened for God’s guidance.

That may sound easy, but it took a lot of effort to stop looking anxiously through the condo listings. Why? Because it was really tempting at first to feel that putting aside my own personal effort and letting God guide me might result in missing out on finding the right place. However, the opposite was true. As I started praying, I had a budding conviction deep down that when I stopped my anxious searching and turned the problem over to God, that’s when the perfect solution would follow.

By this time in my life, a few years out of college, I had had many proofs of the power of prayer to solve problems of all kinds, including illness, difficulties with school, and relationship issues. I knew from years of study and prayer­—and experience—that God’s presence and power are real and that we can find healing by turning away from materialistic, limited thinking.