What is it that makes prayer truly healing? Does such prayer require great human effort in order to be effective?
One winter some years ago, I was toiling away at prayer myself, when I had an experience that showed me a far better way. My son was about ten years old and was sent home from school because he had a fever. I made him comfortable and sat by his bedside praying for him as he drifted in and out of sleep. I was endeavoring to pray in line with Jesus’ familiar instruction to “know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32), so I was prayerfully considering my son from a spiritual standpoint as God’s child, ever healthy and strong, under divine Love’s constant care. When I didn’t see much effect from my prayers, I tried knowing these truths more intensely.
After a little while, as my son slept, I stepped into the backyard with our dog, as he needed to go outside. We’d had an ice storm the previous night, and the whole neighborhood looked like a glass menagerie. The sun shone brightly, and the ice-covered trees sparkled under a clear blue sky. The sheer beauty of it lifted my spirits. As I stood there, yearning for a clearer understanding of how to pray more effectively, I noticed a pine bough, heavy with glassy ice. Just as I was looking at it, the ice dropped off, melted by the sun. Despite appearances, the ice hadn’t ever really been part of the branch. So it could not remain.
