After my husband and I had made half a dozen major moves, including two overseas, and several minor moves, we purchased a house with the unspoken but nevertheless heartfelt desire never to move again. A few years later I went into the public practice of Christian Science healing. My practice was just getting established when my husband came home one day with the news that he had been offered a very good job, halfway around the world! Not only did I feel incapable of moving one more time, but I also felt this was an unacceptable interruption of my work.
Realizing, however, that he was clearly interested in the job, I needed to consider the situation prayerfully, rather than simply react humanly. Starting from the human point of view is, by definition, limited. I knew that turning to God would enable me to avoid cluttering my thought with distracting human opinions, complicated by personal will. Human will would sidetrack us from the ability to listen clearly and purely for divine guidance. I knew from experience that no amount of human reasoning can bring the satisfying answers that come from listening to the divine Mind in prayer. Just the desire to pray indicates a surrendering of the human and a yielding to the divine.
Prayer elevates consciousness, taking thought away from self and aligning it with God. We become more aware of His divine laws of harmony. Prayer focuses thought on what God is and what He knows, and relinquishes the confusion of mortal thought, which either believes it knows everything or believes it knows nothing. Neither state of belief gives faultless guidance or lasting peace. Bowing to God's flawless government, we are rescued from either recklessness or timidity.
