When we pray in Christian Science, what are we seeking? Are we looking primarily for physical healing? A solution to a nagging problem? Or, does a deep desire to know God better impel our prayer? Healing or understanding— which is more important? The answer has a significant bearing on the results of our prayer.
The incomparable demonstrations of Christ Jesus are our foremost example of what can happen when one prays effectively. Unwavering faith that all things are possible to God is the cornerstone of his instructions about how to pray. But he taught that prayer should not be motivated primarily by a desire for objective things—food, clothing, shelter, or even needed physical healing. These necessities were not to be ignored; but he counseled putting first things first. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" Matt. 6:33. is the way he described the proper motive for prayer.
Jesus proved that God is changeless Truth, the one infallible source of all that is ever really true of man. When someone came to him for healing, Jesus recognized that the discordant physical condition was not the reality but mortal mind's way of displaying its false beliefs about man. He showed that turning promptly from the error to understand spiritually what God is doing and what He is making manifest through His reflection, man, heals. As Mrs. Eddy explains in Science and Health: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick." Science and Health, pp. 476-477.
