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There are times prayer begins with a heartfelt, “Please, God, help me …” or “Please, give me … .” There are other times when the most helpful basis for prayer is simply to be thankful for what is real; in other words, for what is actually present. This approach goes way beyond just the glass half-empty versus the glass half-full perspective, where one is to be patiently grateful for whatever little is in the glass. It’s to begin with the infinitude of God. It is in God that we find our true and abundantly capable selves. In God, your glass isn’t just half full; it’s constantly overflowing, as the Bible puts it in the 23rd Psalm.
Rather than looking for a person to complete you, for a job or location to complete you, for a social or economic situation to complete you, in reality, it’s only in God that you can find your absolute wholeness. As the offspring or reflection of God, divine Love, your identity literally is Spirit’s self-expression.
“When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness,” explains Mary Baker Eddy on page 264 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. The self-completeness she’s talking about is one of the most beautiful and powerful metaphysical facts about you.
The Bible’s book of Colossians explains that you “are complete in him” (2:10). That hints at how the self-completeness of God is really the self-completeness of you. You and God are distinct, yet are perpetually at one. God needs nothing added in order to remain God. Being complete in God, you enjoy the very same luxury.
Your identity literally is Spirit’s self-expression.
Focusing on how you are now living, moving, and having your being (see Acts 17:28) in everlasting Love and Spirit always results in spiritual growth and progress. When someone is building a foundation for a house, both the foundation perimeter and the house remain the same. Yet, with your spiritual growth, it doesn’t work that way. The foundation that you have in Spirit expands to your consciousness as the infinitude of God’s nature and essence is revealed in you day by day. You, divine Love’s idea, are forever developing, gaining, and rising. It’s powerful prayer to take this fact very seriously.
The self-completeness that you have in God means that you can accept Psalms 23:1 literally: “I shall not want.” The reason you are not in want is because of what you already have. “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom,” explained Jesus (Luke 12:32). If it’s God’s good pleasure to do this, then it must have already been done! So, what’s missing about you? Not one single thing.
As God’s expression of Himself, you are complete, and therefore have perfect wholeness, ability, and boundless opportunity. There’s no need to request divine Love to give you things that you’ve already been given. Gratitude for your completeness in God, it turns out, can be one of the deepest and most effective prayers.