The picture in the magazine advertisement shows a businessman obviously exhausted after a hard day. He's spread out in his living room, with the family dog hopelessly barking for attention at his feet. Below the picture, the ad copy suggests that for "a lot of people the energy crisis has nothing to do with oil embargoes and solar power." Instead, the ad claims, the problem is "a personal energy shortage."

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be an uncommon occurrence in modern life for people to come to the end of a day and simply feel there's not much left of them. The toll of the day's activity or anxiety would too frequently try to deplete one's natural vitality and joy. And the drain on energy seems to cut across all walks of life—construction worker, schoolteacher, homemaker, salesperson, attorney, mechanic. I'm sure you could add almost any occupation to the list.

There is, however, an answer to this energy crunch that isn't usually found in the products of commercial advertising or in other alternatives that offer temporary, material solutions. What about the possibility of prayer? Certainly many people start their day with and perhaps take a few moments to ask God's blessing just before retiring at night. But I also know people who pause throughout their day, no matter how busy, to turn quietly to God. They actually take their prayer to the tasks at hand. And maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea also to be bringing our workday to its normal conclusion with prayer.

If we're willing to look for a spiritual solution, there are a few things we might need to keep in mind about the direction our prayer should follow and what kind of motive should be behind it. Of course, there aren't any formulas, like punching a predesigned program into a computer and then waiting a few seconds for the right answer to appear on the screen. The prayer itself must be the result of inspiration. And only through inspiration, the activity of Christ, Truth, will our thought be able to move out of the old beliefs about life that have been accepting limited, material causes and effects as solid, unyielding realities. It is, in fact, these old beliefs that are the tired beliefs, the very thing that would deplete energy and vigor.

Even though there may not be any set formulas for inspired prayer, we should naturally be feeling that our communion with God is bringing us to a conscious awareness of His presence and to understanding something of what it means to be God's child. In Christian Science, prayer isn't actually about material conditions but about spiritual reality, about the reality of God and our relationship to Him. And it's through discovering this reality that we find ourselves gaining a measure of genuine freedom from the confinements and restrictiveness of material existence.

This freedom comes because spiritual sense is letting us know that the material factors—the ways, means, and ends of mortal existence—do not really constitute the substantial governing force in our life that they may have appeared to. Christian Science explains that the governing reality of all existence is God Himself. God is the presence and power known as infinite Love, the all-intelligent Mind, immortal and unbounded divine Life. And the divine governing power is also the only true creative power. God has made His children—all of us in truth—to express His own unlimited nature.

This means that the qualities of divine Love, Mind, Life, are the actual substance of who we are. We are not made up of merely a material physique and a combination of humanly mental capacities, which can too easily be drained by activity or "stressed out" by daily challenges. The man and woman of God's creating naturally express the untiring love of divine Love, the undepleted intelligence of divine Mind, the unyielding vigor of divine Life.

Through the prayer that yields to the reality of our relationship to God, we can actually begin to realize spiritual power in a way that revives and more consistently maintains the energy we need. Prayer in Christian Science does this by showing us the real energy that, in fact, we already have as infinite Mind's expression.

Our yielding to God's purpose for our lives is surely a redeeming, purifying, energizing influence. And, referring to that state of human consciousness which is being cleansed by the spirit of Truth, Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, has written: "By purifying human thought, this state of mind permeates with increased harmony all the minutiæ of human affairs. It bring with it wonderful foresight, wisdom, and power; it unselfs the mortal purpose, gives steadiness to resolve, and success to endeavor. Through the accession of spirituality, God, the divine Principle of Christian Science, literally governs the aims, ambition, and acts of the Scientist. The divine ruling gives prudence and energy...." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 204.}

We don't to settle for lives that seem to be constantly running on half-empty. And we also don't have to settle for material solutions or responses that would ultimately deplete us even more. The Old Testament book of Isaiah gave an assurance to God's people over two thousand years ago: God "giveth power to the faint.... They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." ^{Isa. 40:29, 31.} That assurance still means what it says—and it can be proved through prayer.

William E. Moody