Last summer, my wife and I were spending a wonderful week at the beach. One night in the middle of our vacation, I was awakened by a sharp pain in my stomach. I tried repositioning myself, but the pain persisted no matter what position I tried.
I rely on God for healing, and so it was natural to pray in response to this discomfort, but that night I found myself caught between a sleepy laziness and the desire to pray. Although I thought about various ideas that had been helpful during times of physical distress in the past, on this particular night, the discomfort continued.
Finally, I remembered something I had learned when I took class instruction in Christian Science. During this two-week course on spiritual healing I'd discovered that one of the most effective ways to pray about something is to listen—to listen for what God is telling me about Himself and about my relationship to Him as His reflection. This concept of listening-as-prayer is based on the premise that God, or infinite Mind, is constantly providing the right thoughts for the right moments.
