Series 1 - Lesson 1 - Annotation 14
Explain why it is necessary to pray believing that we have received.
14. It is necessary to pray believing (with faith) that we have received the good we desire, because our believing opens the door of our consciousness to receive the idea that is back of our desired good. This believing (faith) goes further than our consciousness or mind; it acts like a magnet to draw the outer forms that can fulfill our desire.
We live, move, and have our being in divine substance which is provided for our use in satisfying our longings and fulfilling our every need. All good is ours now and always has been, just as all air is ours to breathe freely.
We often refer to divine substance as the presence of God. To each of us is entrusted the power to mold this substance into the forms that fit our needs. But in order to lay hold of this substance, we have to believe (i.e., perceive through our faith faculty) that it is inherent in us as part of our divine inheritance. Through prayer we are able to appropriate this substance, in which inhere the ideas that are our "daily bread," and this appropriation should be as spontaneous and effortless as the appropriation of the air that we breathe. The mental attitude of faith, or believing, seems to correspond to the physical action of breathing air into the lungs.
The abundance that we call divine substance has always been ours, but we have lost sight of it. Because of this and our need for "daily bread," we feel the impulse to pray. When we do pray believing, our attitude becomes positive and expectant toward the answer. We are able to act as though we had already received the answer in the outer. It is through our faith, or believing, that we make way in consciousness to accept the fulfillment of all of the promises of God to us as His beloved children. It is only our faith in God as our Source and in His promises that we are able to mold rightly the omnipresent substance into the forms ("our daily bread") that can meet our needs.
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Preceding Entry: What is "our daily bread" (Matt. 6:11)?
Following Entry: What is affirmation?
