Desire is prayer

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.

Mrs. Eddy makes this remarkable - and radical - observation at the beginning of her book "Science & Health, with Key to the Scriptures":

"Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds."

Desire is prayer? Really?

Yes, if you really think about it, desire is probably the most perfect and honest form of prayer.

And Mrs. Eddy doesn't stipulate that your desire has to be good, bad or indifferent. What matters is where that desire, that "prayer," is directed!

What's interesting about real desire is, it isn't fake. We all know we've prayed because we're supposed to or because it's expected or because we're scared not to or because we want to look good. But that's just talk. That's not prayer.

Desire is prayer. Desire is urgent and insistent and often wordless and even more often unspoken. It is rarely - if ever - fake. It comes from somewhere deeper than human will. I comes from somewhere more honest than human speech. It comes from somewhere deep within.

But how many times have you felt you could actually trust your genuine burning desires over to God? Don't we more often want to hide our desires from God because we don't think they're good enough or right enough or even honorable enough?

But what if you did start trusting your desires over to God? What if you knew He not only wanted you to trust Him with them, but that He would actually mold them into something beautiful for you and exalt them beyond your expectations - before they take form in word or deed?

But this is exactly what Mrs. Eddy is alerting us all to do: to trust your true desires to God. And to know that He will mold your desires and exalt them into something beautiful and real and spiritually good - into something He would really want for you, His precious child.

You could really then say that the "desire" you feel is actually the birth-pang of Reality - of God's insistant making of you into His likeness. That honest yearning from deep within you, wordless maybe, certainly strong and urgent - is telling you something fundamental about what God wants you to awake to.

Could your desire then actually be God's perfect will for you - maybe viewed "through a glass, darkly" - clamouring to be born in you, as you? to be recognized by you, as you? all glorious within / without, whole, healthy, holy? abundant, complete, fulfilled, awakening to what is already true? to what is already you as God's image and likeness?

Accept the awakening that your genuine desires entail. Accept your desires honestly, maybe even wordlessly just feel them. And then lift them up to God. Trust them to Him. Offer up all of your desires to Him. And through this honest real prayer of yours you will see your desires molded and exalted to be exactly like what God has already prepared especially for you. Accept this! and trust no subsitutes!

His daily Bread of Life will feed all your desires fully as you trust them to Him.

So recieve His grace for today. Let it calm any anxiety you have about your desires. Let His Love instruct you and free you. His Love feeds all hungering desires, all famished affections.