Prayer that uplifts and heals is not an invention of the human mind. It is the God-inspired means for experiencing His help and care in our lives. Therefore prayer in its highest sense is not a process of human thought or simply an uttering of certain words. It is a yielding of human thought to God, the divine Mind. Doing so, we come to realize that God is with us in our prayers, impelling both the desire to pray and our receptivity to Him. Because God is immortal Mind, He did not make mortality, nor does He know the errors and material beliefs that produce mortal ills. But God does know His own offspring, knows us as we truly are, spiritual and perfect; and our receptivity to what He knows enables us to prove His care for His children.
Perhaps we think that prayer must have a certain feel to it, an ethereal quality, or that we must get into a particular mood in order to pray. But why confine prayer to the limits inherent in a human viewpoint? It is helpful to set aside preconceived definitions. Prayer turns us to God, opening the way for us to receive His thoughts. The Bible tells us, "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." jer. 29:11. Because God is infinite Mind, the All-in-all, His thoughts are infinitely present and without limits. They acquaint us with His own nature and with the true, original condition of our existence as His spiritual offspring.
When our prayers are God-inspired, we gain freedom from the mistaken assumption that good results are dependent on some human process called prayer. We see that what helps and heals us is God with us. Our prayers provide the mental climate where thought comes into accord with divine Truth, making us aware of what God is and of what He is already doing.
