One day years ago, I took an overnight ferry from Harwich, England, to Bremerhaven, Germany. We had sailed in calm waters for a number of hours, but when night fell a violent storm suddenly arose. The ship was tossed not only from bow to stern but also from side to side.  

We were instructed by the captain to go to our cabins. As I walked past the dining room I saw all the tables and chairs rocketing from one side of the room to the other and smashing into the walls. I was really scared—I felt helpless, and thought I was going to die. Holding on to everything that was fixed, I made my way down to my cabin. But the cabin was claustrophobic, and there seemed no way of escape.

I started to pray, to understand spiritually that I could not be separated from God’s goodness. I knew that as God’s image, man—everyone, including all of us on the ship—is protected and controlled by God’s law of order at all times. Discord of any nature is not part of God’s creation. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy says: “The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history” (pp. 470–471).

The ninety-first Psalm helped guide my thought. Claiming that I was dwelling in “the secret place of the most High,” the kingdom of heaven, I felt God to be “my refuge and fortress.” No “noisome pestilence”—no evil force—had power, prestige, or entity. I refused to believe that I could be afraid “for the terror by night.” Because God was my refuge, no evil could hurt me, and no “plague” could come into my consciousness or my experience.

Any time we feel at risk, God, divine Love, is at hand to preserve us.

The Psalm continues, “He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” This was confirmed for me when I opened the Christian Science textbook to this angel message: “The harmony and immortality of man are intact” (Science and Health, p. 521). As I pondered the word harmony, I became conscious that God was harmony itself and that I could only experience the peace that God knows and expresses throughout His creation.

At that, I lay down on my bunk and simply went to sleep—even though the ship was still tossing all over the place. When I woke up, the sun was shining and the sea was as calm as a mill pond. I learned when the ferry docked that no one on board had been injured.

So what actually happened? I had become aware of God’s government of His creation, and discord had left my consciousness. I realized the truth of my relation to God—that there is no separation between God and His idea, man. The understanding of this at-one-ment with God destroyed my sense of vulnerable physicality and freed me from believing that I was in an unsafe place, apart from His care. And I feel sure that my prayers contributed to the safety of others.

Any time we feel at risk, God, divine Love, is at hand to preserve us. When I was on the ferry, even though the storm did not stop, the consciousness of Love’s omnipresence neutralized the effect of the weather on me. In a sense I was taken “out” of the storm. Mrs. Eddy explains the power of this spiritual stand: “Let discord of every name and nature be heard no more, and let the harmonious and true sense of Life and being take possession of human consciousness” (Science and Health, p. 355).

Sometimes we outline how God must save us from danger. We try to tell Him what He must do, how solutions to the storms in our life should come. But God shows us His spiritual law at work. As we replace limited mortal thinking with heartfelt prayer, His presence and omnipotence are revealed in our lives.

Our prayers for divine preservation need not be influenced by discordant thoughts others may have—thoughts that accept the reality of a power apart from God. We can be confident that we are not subject to a general disturbance of thought, and that mortal fear cannot create inharmony or control us.

The Bible story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego surviving a fiery furnace is evidence of this divine protection. In the midst of that frightening experience, these three young men maintained a firm trust in God. And although everyone around them expected them to die, they emerged from the fiery furnace without even a smell of fire on them (see Daniel 3:13–27). 

Christ Jesus repeatedly proved that material conditions cannot influence an idea of God. When an angry crowd tried to kill him, his spiritual understanding enabled him to pass through the middle of it unharmed (see Luke 4:28–30). 

We have the same ability to trust God’s care without fear of other so-called spirits, minds, or personalities. In my case, although I initially thought otherwise, the truth was that now and always, as it says in Psalms, “power belongeth unto God” (62:11). Even when a mortal sense of inharmony seemed to mesmerize me into fearing that God, Love, was not present and that external causes could tempt me to feel outside the atmosphere of Spirit—at that very time infinite Love was present and in control of the situation. 

Our safety is assured—uninterrupted and unimpaired—because “salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). Praying to know this is effective in bringing this truth to human consciousness through the Christ. We may not always see how prayer is destroying evil, but we can fearlessly affirm that the allness of infinite Life, Truth, and Love effectively excludes evil and brings good to light. God’s power blesses mankind, forever preserving our peace and tranquility.