Divine guidance in human affairs is available to all who progressively align their thinking and living with God. By humbly seeking, through heartfelt prayer, to understand man's unity with God, each of us will be led to pursue the right course of action in any situation.

Christ Jesus, humanity's great benefactor, consistently received spiritual direction through enlightened prayer. Prayer to him was more than the mere repetition of words. He taught that it begins in thought with right motives and desires and shows forth in conduct by one's putting these right desires into action. Jesus knew that to reach a desired destination one must make every effort to get there!

Understanding that righteous effort is the key to answered prayer, Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." ^{Matt. 7:7.} As mankind's Way-shower, Christ Jesus opened the way of salvation for all from sin, sickness, and death, and his successful example shows every individual how to escape from discord and make true progress.

A student of Christian Science recognizes that a correct understanding of God and of man's relationship to Him—such as Christ Jesus demonstrated—is necessary for spiritual advancement. Prayer is mankind's avenue of approach to God, Spirit, but it cannot be used properly to beg for personal favors.

Christian Science teaches that God is divine Principle— unchanging Life, Truth, and Love. Any attempt to influence God is therefore unavailing. Mrs. Eddy says: "Prayer can neither change God, nor bring His designs into mortal modes; but it can and does change our modes and our false sense of Life, Love, and Truth, uplifting us to Him. Such prayer humiliates, purifies, and quickens activity, in the direction that is unerring." ^{No and Yes, p. 39.}

Prayer is spiritual activity. It is the effort we make to purify our ideals—to spiritualize our conceptions of God and man—and then to fulfill these higher ideals through improved performance at our job, at home, in church work, or in school. Such prayerful effort elevates us to perceive God's nature more clearly, so we can act in harmony with divine law. In this way we align ourselves with divine Principle and are prepared to receive the blessings we desire.

Genuine prayer, then, is our conscientious endeavor to understand and to do good. From a human standpoint, it means striving to demonstrate, through repentance and reformation of character, our worthiness to receive the good we rightly seek from God. But this does not mean God sees us as mortals attempting to become perfect. From the divine standpoint man is already perfect, the reflection of perfect God, eternal good. As God's likeness, man forever expresses everything that is good, all true substance, intelligence, love. Humanly we possess these divine qualities to the degree we express them in daily thought and deed. This is how prayer is answered. Not by changing God or the real, spiritual man, but by leading us to recognize our true identity as His man and express His attributes in our lives.

But what can be done when things appear hopeless and we're unable to see our way clearly? First, we may need to admit the inadequacy of unenlightened human reasoning and be willing to put it aside. Then, turning from material to spiritual means, we may petition humbly: "Shepherd, show me how to go...," ^{Poems, p. 14.} as Mrs. Eddy expresses it in her poem " 'Feed My Sheep.' "

When one prays with an understanding of God's immutability, a petition for divine guidance is Christianly scientific. One acknowledges in humility that he has not yet risen to grasp the spiritual facts necessary to resolve the situation, but expresses a sincere desire to do so. Although directing his prayer to God, the petitioner must work toward what he desires. He must refute doubt, indecision, and delay by affirming the truth of perfect God and perfect man and then acting in accord with his highest conception of this truth.

God is Truth, and in Truth's clear light man knows himself as the child of God. Our affirmation and realization of this spiritual sonship with God is prayer, which provides divine direction. Inspired with true self-knowledge, we are rightly self-directed. As we perceive our real, indispensable role as God's pure spiritual expression, we gain increasing capacity to fulfill it in present living.

Such prayer changed the direction of my life during college. There, after turning humbly to God in an earnest effort to discover a higher sense of purpose, I met a perceptive classmate who invited me to attend the Christian Science organization on campus. The weekly meetings directed my thinking into fresh, new channels!

As I listened to readings from the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's book Science and Health, doubt and confusion were gradually replaced with confidence in Truth, God. Pondering the testimonies of healing, I further perceived that God is ever-present Love. Eagerly I read the Christian Science periodicals, studied the Lesson-Sermon, ^{In the Christian Science Quarterly .} and put into practice the truths I was learning. By affirming the power of Love to destroy any inharmony, physical or mental, I was healed of severe sore throats and mental exhaustion.

Step by step I endeavored to conform every aspect of my life to the high standards of divine Life. This meant refusing coffee, tea, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs of any kind, rejecting unprincipled behavior, and adhering strictly to the Ten Commandments and Jesus' precepts in the Sermon on the Mount. Finally I glimpsed the spiritual fact that man is not simply in God's presence but is forever one with God as His perfect reflection. Here was the answer to my deepest prayer! I saw that our true selfhood is inseparable from God, good, and reflects every divine quality, such as wisdom, ability, and strength—qualities necessary to express God fully in our own individual way.

As I reordered my priorities in line with this uplifted sense of capacity and purpose, my course became clear. In steadily advancing stages I joined a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and The Mother Church and had class instruction in Christian Science. Later I completed a graduate program that has led to an increasingly more meaningful career. Most important, all these steps of progress have enabled me to make a growing contribution to my family, church, and community, and I feel I've found the way of life exemplified by Christ Jesus: a life freed through prayer from the limitations of material thinking and truly unbounded in scope.

To pray, in Christian Science, is to seek the right way, the way of divine Truth, Life, and Love as taught and demonstrated by Christ Jesus; to find it; and then to follow it under every circumstance. Mrs. Eddy says, "Follow the directions of God as simplified in Christian Science, and though it be through deserts He will direct you into the paths of peace." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 361.}

Thus we all may find, through our prayerful efforts to demonstrate the Science of Christ, that the pathway of peace, progress, and prosperity in serving God begins wherever we are and broadens with each step in the right direction.

Hear my cry, O God;
attend unto my prayer.
From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee,
when my heart is overwhelmed:
lead me to the rock that is higher than I....
For thou, O God,
hast heard my vows:
thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.

Psalms 61:1, 2,5