Sometimes we may believe that we're unable to pray for ourselves or someone else because we feel uninspired, discouraged, confused, or even too afraid to pray. We've probably all had those feelings at one time or another. When I've felt like that, I've found it helpful to look at the whole issue of prayer through an understanding of man's spiritual relation to God.
Inspiration is actually a quality of God, Mind, and so is always available to us. When we acknowledge with conviction that our thoughts and lives are governed by God, we find the inspiration that is always present in divine Mind to be present in our own prayers, here and now. Since divine Mind is ever present, the door of spiritual consciousness and inspiration must always be open to us, wherever we are mentally. Thus as we focus less on our perceived inability and unpreparedness to pray at such times—and more on what is true in the light of God's presence and of what He has created—we'll be able to pray.
In Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, man is described as "God's spiritual idea, individual, perfect, eternal." Then the book quotes a dictionary definition of "idea" as "an image in Mind; the immediate object of understanding." Science and Health, p. 115. Here Mrs. Eddy is not talking about man as we perceive him through the physical senses, but spiritual man, made in the image and likeness of God, as the Bible states. This is the truth of man, which Christ Jesus exemplified and which is evident in his teachings and healing works.
