A lot of time and thought are wasted spinning human daydreams of "the good life," or the way in which a dilemma might "work out" beautifully. God does not, cannot, conceive anything in human terms, with matter as an ingredient of His plan. Matter is unknown to God. It is unknown to man. It is not a factor in your life, your real life as His expression of His being.

If a healing is protracted, it is sometimes because we believe that we must personally activate God's law on our behalf. But actually God is constantly expressing in man His law of perfection. Principle, God, being and expressing Himself, controls every event in the universe through divine law.

God's law is always active, accomplishing good, and we, in reality, are embraced by this law right now. God motivates man for His unlimited expressive purposes. Each of us is essential to God's eternal, harmonious plan for His children. And His law provides us with everything we need to fulfill our role, our destiny, in that plan.

But an important realization is that humans don't trigger law or Truth through prayer. The Christ, Truth, in a sense, triggers us, propels us forever. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," ^{John 5:17.} said Christ Jesus. God's grace, His boundless love for you, is not activated because you or I pray. It's always active. God is ever ready to heal and save. When we pray, when we know what is true of the universe and our being, it is important to see that this knowing, in its fullest sense, is Mind expressing itself.

Mrs. Eddy throws light on this truth when she describes what it is that brings illumination and healing: "Divine Science, the Word of God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, 'God is All-in-all,' and the light of ever-present Love illumines the universe." ^{Science and Health, p. 503.} It is divine Science that heals; it is God's Word, not human words, that brings light. The truth we know for anyone does not originate in us humanly. Real thought comes from God. When we understand the metaphysical truth in any situation, we are demonstrating that we express divine consciousness and that our thoughts really originate in Him.

God's affluence, His supply of infinite substance, has been active on our behalf forever. The more clearly we see this and constantly acknowledge it, the more continuously our human needs are met. The unalterable spiritual fact is that your life and my life are the very appearing of His affluence—God's expression without limit. We consciously take our place in this appearing now through the unselfed prayer that sees God as All and loves expressing His qualities in daily living. In reality, our place in His affluence is the only place we have ever been. Knowing this, we experience the genuine riches of Godlike, spiritual consciousness.

So, perhaps a healing is prolonged; a difficult relationship isn't unscrambling; or our lives aren't as satisfying as we would like. The temptation might be strong to hope that God, divine Love, will intercede, will come in and harmonize things—if we know the truth diligently enough. But prayer conforms our ways to His, not His to ours. God does love us deeply and tenderly, but sometimes there is an unconscious tendency to think that God is worried about the problem; that, appreciating the severity and complexity of it all, He will straighten it out ... with enough fuel from us in the form of prayer, or truth-knowing. But shouldn't our truth-knowing ultimately bring us to the understanding that God doesn't have a problem, that He can't be worried about a thing? And if God can't be, you and I, as the perfect reflection of His being, are not worried. Not really. The sooner we rise to the understanding that, in reality, there isn't anything present that needs straightening out, the quicker our healing will be.

In human belief, the "straightening out" involves clarifying our concept of God and man. Currently, it looks as if we have a lot of unwanted fictions about divine Life to drop. Perhaps, then, spiritual progress is both a straightening out—as we gain spiritual understanding—and a laying down, that is, a repenting or unburdening ourselves of dream images that have no substance. This can be a joyous process as we see that the Christly impulsion to lay down a false sense does not have a personal origin, does not depend on a personal human ego or material brain. The origin of all real reformation is divine. We are able to call a lie a lie because God is showing us reality—and more of it all the time.

Matter has no role in this process of waking up; it is inanimate, mindless. It has no impulsion, no desire, no will. It is unknown and unknowing. It accomplishes nothing, is nothing. So we can rejoice. There is no source other than God motivating us to rise in our understanding of our only, our spiritual, selfhood.

As we daily engage in the separation of Truth and error, affirming the former, denying and expunging the latter, we should be clear about who is impelling whom. Prayer does not impel God to heal, but God is impelling us to show forth His infinite goodness. As prayer becomes a recognition and acceptance of this impulsion, healing is inevitable, beautiful, and our spiritual progress is continuous.