Charting the world's progress

I like to keep up with the world’s challenges and progress by reading The Christian Science Monitor, and I enjoy the “People Making a Difference” column. Having relied on prayer for many years, I’ve learned that the spiritual truths seen in prayer can reach around the world and help others in ways we may never know. That’s because the Christ—God’s divine message of Truth—is actually speaking to human consciousness. The communication might be felt in the form of a protective warning or a sense of peace, joy, hope, or strength. 

Christ Jesus promised, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). So no matter how extreme our circumstances, God’s will is for our good. This means we can trust not only that we will find healing when there is trouble but also that, as the expression of God, or good, we have the infinite good which belongs to the kingdom of heaven.

One should never underestimate how far and wide the truth of God’s goodness can go. Everyone can be a part of the spiritual activity of aiding the world’s progress, as the Monitor is doing. 

Sometimes I take a mental trip around the continents. First, I think of the different people—the city dwellers, the manufacturers, the fishermen and farmers, even the shepherds—all the variety of the human scene. Then I pray to know that no matter what I see or hear in news events, all of these individuals are children of God, made in His image and likeness, forever in His care. 

I have sometimes stopped to pray earnestly about just one situation for a while. In prayer, I have mentally “adopted” various groups around the world. The “lost boys of Sudan” were of special concern to me. These were about 20,000 boys, most of them orphaned, who survived the wars, deprivations, and other threats to their lives, and many are now living in the United States and other countries far from Sudan.  

Other groups I prayed for were the victims of severe weather conditions or military upheavals, along with women suffering abuse, especially the “honor killings” in India, which betray a deep insecurity over class honor and a misunderstanding of what real honor is. If God is man’s real Father, then the only honor is in reflecting God. It is man’s real nature to do this, and we should be praying to understand that in truth each individual is like our Father, God—loving and unselfish. Mary Baker Eddy explains, “Harmony in man is as real and immortal as in music” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 276). 

Further, when there are reports of disasters, violence, greed, unemployment, we can pray to know that God is supplying the ideas needed to help and heal, to transform thought and lives. There does seem to be a lot of need on the world scene. But we can be sure that God has us all in His infinite embrace.