Access denied?
I programmed the cursor on my new computer to look like a hand. Now when I double-click on anything, this little hand drums its fingers patiently while it waits for the computer to respond.
This can take a particularly long time when I click on a hypertext link to a Web site. I watch the hand drumming its little fingers while I wait for a response. Occasionally I get a message telling me I have been denied access to a site because it has disappeared or requires membership for entry. Or because there's a technical impediment to getting in.
Well, I was reading about the power of prayer to actually help people and even heal them. And I found that, unlike when you're on the Internet, you're never denied access to God, who is always immediately available.
What I was reading goes like this: "In divine Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail themselves of God as 'a very present help in trouble.' Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, 'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters' " ("Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy, pgs. 12-13).
God is infinitely more accessible than any Web site. At a recent conference I attended, we were told that less than one percent of the world's population even has access to the Internet. God, on the other hand, is free, available to all of us - equally - through the medium of prayer.
That passage speaks of God's healing love as being like an open fountain. That's a wonderful promise. Like a faucet that's never closed, God pours out affection, warmth, compassion, and care to each and every one of us, at every moment. Now, even!
Access to God is achieved mentally; that is, by spiritual thinking. (It's a little like having a favorite Web site that you only need to think about - and there it would be on your computer, with no little fingers drumming away.)
If our family, our friends, or even everyone else in the world is too busy to be with us, God is never too busy. Prayer brings God's direct responses to our needs for companionship, help, or guidance. In fact, even before someone starts praying to God, God is responding to that person's needs. A long time ago someone envisioned Him as saying, "It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear" (Isa. 65:24).
The clearer you are about the accessibility and availability of God's healing; the more you mentally attune yourself to what God sees and knows - health, harmony, happiness - the more you are really praying. God knows us all as His children, whom He's made perfect in every way. The prayer of Jesus brought proof of this when, for example, it cured people of long-standing illnesses and helped them rid themselves of bad traits. Well, you can turn to God in prayer if you're in trouble, in the same way Jesus did.
One time I did this when I was traveling to another country and found I didn't have the right paperwork to enter. I had a legitimate reason for being there, but a border guard insisted that I had to turn back and go home. He phoned the police to come and remove me!
I prayed. Mentally, I turned to God - for the right thoughts. And God was right there, an "open fount" of good ideas, spiritual ideas. One of the thoughts God gave me, which I obeyed as best I could, was to love this border guard unconditionally.
By the time the police arrived, the guard had mellowed. Instead of insisting that they take me away, he left it up to the police to decide. Then, when I gave my explanation, the police waved me on across the border. In a very practical way, my access to God had brought me access to that country.
Am I a God at hand,
saith the Lord, and not
a God afar off? Can any
hide himself in secret places
that I shall not see him?
saith the Lord. Do not I
fill heaven and earth?
saith the Lord.
Jeremiah 23:23, 24
(c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society
