What is it that we expect from our prayers? Do we expect to see the glorious light of God's Christ revealing man's perfection? The Psalmist said, "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him." Ps. 62:5. We might ask ourselves: Am I praying the way Christ Jesus taught his disciples to pray—with the understanding that God is our Father, and that His power and glory are forever? Or am I just listening to false expectations based on fear that progress will be too slow, or that certain kinds of healing aren't possible through prayer?
God's power and oneness are no less present today than they were in the past. His all-embracing love and wisdom are eternal, and absolute law. God's law is the law of His Christ. Christ, Truth, which Jesus so fully demonstrated, heals by imparting to human consciousness the reality of God's allness, thus destroying the sense of evil. Recognizing the power of Christ inspires a kind of expectancy that makes us eager to acknowledge the varied ways our prayer is answered. And this opening of our thought to Christ is as powerful as the coming of the dawn after a pitch-black night. Expectancy of good is a spiritual force that records in thought every bit of progress, however small.
"What cannot God do?" Mary Baker Eddy asks in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Science and Health, p. 135. The Science of Christianity affirms that all good is possible to God. So the question may be directing our thought to the importance of knowing God better and our relation to Him. It might be, when our prayers seem to be unanswered, that we need to examine what our priority is. Are we primarily seeking to understand God and to progress in our inner spiritual journey? Or are we preoccupied with outward evidence? We might even ask ourselves after a healing: What is my priority now? Do I return to satisfaction with matter-based thinking, or do I move with the spiritual regeneration that brought the healing toward further illumination of thought?
