When prayer is sincere and understanding, the petitioner may be assured of its fulfillment. Christ Jesus promised (Matt. 21:22), "Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive," and the Apostle James proclaimed (5: 16,) "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
Answered prayer justifies the implicit faith or complete conviction which the Master characterized as believing. It is the fulfilled desire of those whose thoughts and daily deeds can be adjudged according to that which is right. In its highest sense, righteous prayer is the acknowledgment of God as all-inclusive Spirit and of man's spiritual sonship. It is the recognition of God as divine Principle, Love, operating through spiritual law, the only law of being, the sustaining force that motivates and maintains the spiritual universe. The Scriptures affirm that the universe of God's creating is wholly good, and that it includes all there is to creation, for "without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3). Hence, as Christian Science teaches, God, Spirit, is All, and there is no existence apart from or unlike Him, nor is there any place in which evil can ever claim being. Consequently, whatever would appear to human consciousness as inharmony is an illusion of supposititious mortal sense, for discord has no origin or residence in the infinitude of Spirit.
These truths, understood, form the basis for "effectual fervent prayer." They demonstrate the unreality of whatever would induce fear and discord, for they prove the understanding of God as Love, the perfect Love that casts out fear. Man is the handiwork of God, and what He creates perfect and harmonious "in the beginning," or in the only true state of being, He maintains eternally in perfect continuity. Thus there can be no inequality, for under God's government all partake equally of His spiritual bounty. Individuals may prove this for themselves through understanding prayer as taught in Christian Science.
