How do our prayers about the issues we face in our own lives make an impact on the world around us? This summer, the college interns at The Mother Church got to thinking and talking about this question—and shared their prayers on various problems of personal, national, and global concern.

Praying about the job market

I’ve heard from lots of people that my generation has the hardest time finding work after graduation; that there aren’t enough jobs out there for everyone who is looking. 

In my own life, I’ve found prayer to be a helpful way of combating these negative predictions. As I’ve prayed, I’ve focused on getting rid of doubt—doubt about finding success, doubt about whether my parents would still be proud of me, doubt about my own capabilities. 

Through my study of Christian Science, I know that I am a complete and whole child of God; that each of us is. God created us from a boundless basis—unlimited and free to express all His purpose and intelligence. We each have a God-created role to fulfill. 

One of my favorite ideas to work with is the first two verses of Hymn 278 from the Christian Science Hymnal:

I love the promise of God’s care and love in that hymn, and the reminder that I can turn to God and be guided on my right path. As I’ve worked with these ideas each day, the doubt I was struggling with has slowly melted away. I can honestly say that I feel a renewed trust in God and more certainty that each of us has a place, a purpose, and a path that are God-provided, God-protected, and God-directed.

—Summer Switzer

Toward gender equality

As a woman, I seem to see gender inequality everywhere, even if it’s subtle. But I am tired of being angry and seeing women as victims. A few months ago, I decided to start praying about this by seeing all women and men as spiritually innocent and blameless—the way God made us. 

This can seem hard to do when the media focus on issues such as income inequality, rape, and human trafficking. However, I’ve seen how important it is to hold to the fact that all men and women express completeness, including the qualities of strength, intelligence, beauty, and unselfishness. 

In my own life, I find regular opportunities to make sure I’m seeing and focusing on the perfection of each one as God’s image. When I go out at night or interact with my male friends, I try to eliminate fear and frustration by affirming each individual’s spiritual identity. I still have a ways to go, but this has been a good starting place.

Mary Baker Eddy was a strong, compassionate woman who rose above gender stereotypes to share her revelation, Christian Science. She loved even those who despised her because of her gender and religious beliefs. And as a healer she was able to love, rather than see herself as a victim. 

One of my prayers is to understand more clearly that we are never victims. Each of us is loved so deeply by our Father-Mother, God. This means I am loved, too, and this love impels me to turn my thought from thinking of myself as a victim to approaching things as a healer by seeing all of us as complete children of God.

—Claire Van Fossen

Understanding our universal source of supply

Like most of us, I have bills to pay. Recently, my expenses have gone up and my income has gone down. And this has impelled me to get a more spiritual understanding of supply. 

In my search through the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, I discovered this helpful line concerning material belief: “The insufficiency of this belief to supply the true idea proves the falsity of material belief” (p. 258). 

For me this quote was a reminder that I needed to know and trust the sufficiency of spiritual truths, which show God’s constant care for each of us, no matter what our need. So my prayer has been a simple but consistent trust in God, and this has proved to be effective. 

For example, friends whom I wouldn’t have expected to reach out to me have done a lot of nice things for me. I have been grateful for these small examples of generosity, which have added up over the last six months, and I look forward to ways that I can be a blessing for someone else. Focusing on God as the source of all good has also given me a deeper trust that infinite good is available to all of us. 

I am grateful to know that spiritual truths are sufficient to supply what we need. And this understanding not only blesses us, but it also has a broader impact as we see these truths as God’s law, which operates on everyone’s behalf.

—Patrick Harber

Our inherent innocence as God’s children

I grew up in a small town, and so coming to live in Boston has been a very interesting experience. Because of the unwanted stares from many of the men I’ve encountered in the places where I’ve exercised, I have struggled to find places to run where I feel comfortable. I have been praying regularly to understand that God’s children are harmless—each one the completely good expression of divine Love.

While I was thinking about this idea, one of my favorite hymns came to mind: 

This hymn emphasizes the point that we are constantly cared for and watched over by God, meaning that we could never be in a situation where we are without that sense of protection. I love the comfort of this spiritual fact, not just for me, but for anyone who might be struggling with fears about safety.

I’ve made a lot of progress in understanding the idea of our God-given safety, and in praying I’ve even been able to affirm the safety of those who could be looked at as perpetrators. Each individual’s identity as a pure, innocent child of God is protected under His care, and this cannot be undermined. This is true for each of us, wherever we find ourselves.

—Amanda Breneman

Addressing poverty, step by step

During the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church, I was struck by the idea that when one individual heals a sense of lack in her own life, she contributes to the healing of poverty worldwide. This simple but powerful thought helped me understand the universal power of God’s laws to bless both me and others, and also what each individual’s job is in praying for the world. 

Our job is to heal whatever is in front of us, whether it’s finding a passport by demonstrating that in reality nothing was ever lost, proving spiritually that a long day’s work could not and did not diminish our energy and joy, or learning that we must elevate our concept of supply beyond the amount of money in our bank accounts. 

These “small” proofs of God’s care and presence are actually not small, because all healings prove the same infinitely large Principle—Love—which is God. Thus, the healing that takes place in our own thought, and which is manifested in our own lives, helps lift all mankind out of a limited view of life. 

As Mary Baker Eddy puts it in Science and Health, “In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes,—Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply” (p. 206). 

While I know that seeing the end of poverty requires consistent, prayerful effort from each of us, I also know that the more we understand our oneness with Love, the more we’re lifted out of limitations and lack, and the more convinced we become that this truth applies to everyone.

—Roya Sabri

Our God-given safety

Sometimes I find it tricky to understand how we can prayerfully affirm man’s safety when it seems as if there is so much hurt and terror evident in the world. But at a recent Wednesday evening testimony meeting at The Mother Church, I was moved by a testifier who declared the truth that man’s being is forever safe in divine Life. He addressed the fear and downheartedness that seemed to be hanging over the congregation and the world after the attack in Orlando, Florida. 

As the man spoke, I realized that as Christian Scientists, we each have the opportunity to strive to understand, consistently declare, and demonstrate this fact of our safety and wholeness in our daily lives. Truth is revealed as we demonstrate it. And our commitment to understanding what’s true helps lift the burden of fear, disbelief, or doubt and reveals something of the allness and presence of God. 

Since that Wednesday meeting, I’ve been much more aware of how important it is to pray regularly about safety and to know that those prayers do have an effect.

—Katie Watembach

A home for everyone

As a recent college graduate, I had the opportunity to pray about the idea of home when I needed to move. During the practical process of finding a place, I worked on gaining a more spiritual sense of home by remembering that my true home was already established and maintained by God and that He would continue to hold me in my perfect place forever. 

I started noticing a lot of quotations from the Bible, Science and Health, and other Christian Science literature about where each of us truly dwells, and these were very helpful to me. For example, Hymn 148 in the Christian Science Hymnal mentions abiding in heavenly Love, while Psalm 91 in the Bible includes the idea of dwelling in “the secret place of the most High” and abiding “under the shadow of the Almighty.” I also loved this idea from the Bible: “In him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). 

All of these ideas helped me understand that I was already living in God, divine Love, and therefore could not be deprived of a home. I knew that this would be proved in my being led to the right place to live, and in less than two weeks, I did find a place. It met my needs perfectly, and I really enjoyed the time I spent there. 

I was grateful for this experience for many reasons, but one big one is that gaining a more spiritual sense of home better equipped me to pray about the refugee crisis. It reminded me that God doesn’t forget about anyone; He consistently and lovingly holds each of His children in their right place. Realizing the truth of that fact helps us see evidence of it expressed in our own lives and in the world.

—Laura Tibbetts