Description
You see, she already believed in the availability of Divine Power, but wasn’t quite sure that she knew how to use it. I explained to her that faith operates like a law, that it really can be a fact in human experience, and that the law of good can actually be used for definite purposes. While she had already accepted this in theory, as I think most everyone does, she hadn’t quite realized that affirmative prayer can really unify things and people. I guess she was in the position that many find themselves in, for certainly we all believe in God, we all believe in faith and prayer, and we all believe in the Power greater than we are. Adding this all up together is what we mean by This Thing Called Life.
Yes, we all do believe in the law of good. The question is, are we using what we believe? Or is it merely a good and beautiful theory, the use of which is to be put off to an indefinite future? The question comes right down to this: Do we believe that God is an ever-present help in the time of trouble? The answer will be “Yes” nine times out of ten.
But too often a definite way to use this law of good is vague in our minds. This is because we haven’t yet learned that spiritual laws, like physical laws, are great, silent forces in our lives. We haven’t quite realized what Jesus meant, in most of his parables, where he was likening the laws of nature to the laws of mind and spirit, to those great, invisible and silent forces that govern everything.
This was what I explained to her. And so we started out with this simple proposition: there is one Presence flowing through everything and everyone. Just as there is a law of gravitation that must hold each one of her pupils in the physical place where he sits or stands, so there is one, unifying law of good that works in exactly the same way, binding them all together in one unity of purpose. This is what Jesus tried to show in his parables. And this was the basis for her affirmative prayer.
You see, affirmative prayer is more than a belief in Divine Power. Affirmative prayer actually uses Divine Power for definite purposes – the same Power that Jesus used in all those wonderful things he did, and the Power he told us we could use. It was because this Power was so real to him, so present with him in his mind, so completely accepted by him, that he used it in such a magnificent manner. It wasn’t something vague and indefinite to him and he used it in the only way and place that it can be used – in his own mind and thinking through his own faith and acceptance.
And this is what this woman was told to do. She seemed to grasp the situation and understand the significance of the thought that spiritual power can actually be used for definite purposes. She was able to make her mind an instrument for the silent forces of love and harmony, of unity and good-will which are always available to everyone who believes in them.