Article November 28, 2016 Issue

Keeping our prayers generous blesses each and all

Pam DeBolt

There are many characteristics of effective prayer, and one important aspect is that it is unselfish. Prayer that is unselfish is a truly healing influence, and the wonderful thing is that it meets our needs as well as the needs of others.

The first sentence in the first chapter of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy provides helpful guidance on this point. The author, speaking from her own experience as a healer, wrote, “The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,—a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love” (p. 1).

To me, having “unselfed love” doesn’t just mean being unselfish, though that is important. It means that as I pray for myself—as well as when I pray for others—I am willing to exchange a limited, self-oriented, material view of myself or my needs or desires for fresh, more expansive, inspired, spiritual views. I’m reminded of a simple, encouraging fact as I do this: “… whatever blesses one blesses all …” (Science and Health, p. 206).

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