From the Editors September 15, 2014 Issue

What daily prayer can do for us

David C. Kennedy

People pray for different reasons. Some of us pray as an act of devotion. Some of us pray because we are seeking help from God. In the Bible, St. Paul gives us an important reason to pray. He says, “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).

Conforming to the worldly, material sense of life does not help us understand God. In fact, it tends to hide God’s true nature, because God is Spirit, which is not discerned materially. But the spiritual transformation we gain through prayer opens up higher, more spiritual views of God and what He has created. Praying daily brings spiritual progress on a daily basis. And with it come greater happiness, health, and confidence in the trustworthiness of good.

Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, writes of prayer: “It makes new and scientific discoveries of God, of His goodness and power. It shows us more clearly than we saw before, what we already have and are; and most of all, it shows us what God is” (No and Yes, p. 39).

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