Article March 7, 1994 Issue

Leavening world thought with prayer

Even when the results of prayer for the world are not yet visible, they are making a difference.

Iris Funnell

One day I read of the gratitude an individual felt for the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly, and how he knew, each time he read it and prayed with the truths in it, that he was blessing not only himself but all mankind. I thought: "Yes, that is true. When we lovingly study this Bible Lesson and apply the ideas in it to the world's many troubles, we are serving as healers." As Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health, "The 'still, small voice' of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean to the globe's remotest bound" (p. 559).

On the heels of this truth came the thought that however much we may pray, when we put the news on we hear of terrible things happening all over the world! Humanly speaking, I couldn't deny this point, and I sat there feeling so dispirited (not for the first time!). Then just one word came into my consciousness, but with a feeling of great import. The word was hid. "Hid!" I thought, "Hid?" I just couldn't understand it, and yet I knew it was an inspired thought—what Christian Science calls an angel—from God. Then to my waiting thought came the final part of the message—what Christ Jesus said about the kingdom of heaven. He likened this kingdom to "leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened" (Matt. 13:33).

Never before had I realized the tremendous significance of that word hid in this context. In a flash I saw that all our testimonies of healing through prayer are proofs that God's loving law is in operation. In other words, all the metaphysical work done by individuals either for themselves or others has become visible in these healings, whereas when we pray for humanity the result is not always readily apparent. The effectiveness of our prayers may remain hidden in such cases, but now I knew that all the loving work we do for mankind is always active—it is leavening thought. The work of prayer is never spent and is ceaselessly lifting thought out of materialism to a higher understanding of God. The highest thought recognizes that all life is under God's omnipotent care and all is in the control of Mind.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Statewide inspirational meetings