Many find it difficult to believe in the power of prayer because they think that answers to prayer would interfere with the laws of nature.
This analogy may help to remove this difficulty. If a magnet is held over some iron filings, the filings will fly upwards and cling to the magnet. This does not interfere with the law of gravitation. The force of gravity continues to act on the filings just as before.
What has happened is that a higher force has been brought into play—another force whose action is just as real and calculable as that of gravity.
Prayer brings into action higher forces, yet unknown to many. The only difference between the power of gravity and the power of prayer is that prayer has yet to be thoroughly studied and experimentally investigated and thus appears mysterious and incalculable because of our ignorance.
A question that many have is that prayer seems too feeble a force to produce the results of the powerful outcomes claimed. These analogies have helped me understand this question. Prayer is like the sluice gate of a reservoir where a small force releases and regulates an enormous flow of water power or, when applied to the steering gear of an ocean liner, may control the course of the large vessel.
The power that brings about the answers to our prayers is the inexhaustible Power of the Creator. Our part is only to exert the tiny force necessary to release the flow or determine the course of the Sacred Spirit, always ready to serve those who have learned how to sinecerly draw upon this Sacred Blessing.
In 1954, Albert Einstein wrote to a friend, "Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe – a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers, must feel humble."
