At a Christian Science students’ association meeting a while ago, the speaker asked the audience to pray for themselves for three minutes. They were to use a specific concept from Mary Baker Eddy’s answer to the question, “What is man?” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 475). Although it sounded simple, the speaker noted discernible discomfort in the group. People were restless, checking their watches to see if the three minutes had passed, and so on.
The speaker made the same request four more times during the day. Each time the group seemed to display the same discomfort and resistance to prayer. At the conclusion of the meeting, they were asked to pray, again for three minutes, but this time they were to pray for the world. There was an almost audible sigh of relief. Praying for the world was easy.
What was the difference? Could it be that praying for the world seemed more important, more interesting, and therefore easier to do? Has prayer for ourselves become brief, perfunctory, and routine? If so, then maybe getting a different perspective on daily prayer will bring freshness to our work.
I had an insight into this when I was thinking about the safety instructions flight attendants give to passengers on an airplane. If you’ve been on a flight, you may recall that if the air pressure drops too much, oxygen masks for passengers come out of an overhead storage area. Passengers are instructed to place the mask on their own face first before helping anyone else put on a mask, even if the other person is a child. For me, this illustrates why praying first for ourselves will put us in a better position to pray for others. Daily prayer—our “oxygen mask”—for ourselves enhances our prayer for others.
So wouldn’t neglecting daily prayer for oneself be a subtle way for animal magnetism to pull us off course? I’ve found Christ Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins quite helpful in thinking this through (see Matthew 25:1–13). The ten were waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom. Five of them had plenty of oil to keep their lamps burning through the night. The others (called foolish) ran out of oil. After trying without success to borrow from the wise ones, they had to leave to buy more oil. While they were gone, the bridegroom came. Those who were unprepared missed the occasion entirely.
The message is: Make sure you have a good supply of oil, which is defined in the Glossary of Science and Health, in part, as “… prayer; heavenly inspiration” (p. 592). This implies that we can expect “heavenly inspiration,” or the influx of the Christ in consciousness, as we pray. When our thought is filled with that spiritual reality, we also see outward changes in our lives, and healings come about.
How can we pray so as to experience that flood of inspiration regularly? How can we get beyond the habitual repetition of familiar phrases and prayers to actually feel the unity with God that gives hope when things seem impossible, comfort when reeling from hideous pictures in the news, relief when in pain?
Gratitude for God’s goodness strengthens hope and faith.
In my own experience, there was a time when I felt an urge to find a more inspired approach to daily prayer, which I no longer found very uplifting. Usually, my prayer had been to remind myself that I was God-created, God-maintained, God-guided, and God-protected. I made a point of insisting that evil wasn’t real, and therefore I was protected from anything untoward happening. As a daily routine, it became dry, uninspired, and uninspiring. I longed for something deeper and more uplifting.
I started by not allowing myself to slip into my habitual approach. Instead I prayed to be receptive to what God is always revealing of Himself to man—and therefore to me. Then I listened, instead of doing all the talking.
Insights came that I’d never thought of before. Each day there would be something different, always inspiring. These insights led my prayer to new ideas about identity, the operation of divine law, Father-Mother God’s dear love for His-Her creation. And they came in different ways. For example, one morning a line from a hymn opened up new ideas and inspiration. Sometimes a verse from the Bible comes to thought and expands in fresh ways.
My prayer usually includes the earnest desire for God to open my eyes that I may see more of His creation, to enable me to bear witness more faithfully to His love for all. I ask Father-Mother God to use me for Her purpose, to help me lose self in serving Her, and so on. To cultivate the longing, the heartfelt desire, to know and better understand God is an important part of my daily prayer.
The prayers I had always loved (such as the Lord’s Prayer with its spiritual interpretation in Science and Health on pages 16–17) began to take on greater depth as I mentally slowed down to allow ideas to unfold. For example, recently I spent quite a while pondering the meaning of “Enable us to know,—as in heaven, so on earth,—God is omnipotent, supreme,” which is Mrs. Eddy’s spiritual interpretation of “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (p. 17). I savored each word and the implications of that prayer for myself, my practice of Christian Science, and for the planet.
Gratitude for God’s wondrousness and the gifts of Spirit, which are so freely given to all, has also become part of my daily prayer. I revel in pondering the beauty, abundance, and color of God’s creation. I thank God for His loving care and mercy. I appreciate the diversity expressed in God’s universe. I find that the prayer of gratitude softens the blows when we are facing harsh challenges. Gratitude for God’s goodness strengthens hope and faith. It opens our hearts to receive even more of God’s blessings and gives us courage to go on when things seem tough.
In my daily prayer for myself, I include the “Daily Prayer” and a defense against “aggressive mental suggestion” (see Mrs. Eddy’s Manual of The Mother Church, Article VIII, Sections 4 and 6). This defense includes the insistence that God truly is All-in-all and there isn’t anything but His goodness. There is no mentality to oppose Mind and its ideas. There is no mind to malpractice because there is only the all-knowing and infinite Mind. Evil can’t be real when good is All. I stay with these affirmations until I feel a conviction, a certainty, that Truth is true and the only reality. Therefore nothing unlike Truth can be real or have power.
This diligent approach to my daily prayer for myself has become a joy. I look forward to it each morning. It’s as though I’m standing on mental tiptoes to see what wonderful things God has to show me. And by faithfully keeping my lamp of inspiration filled daily, I experience the coming of Christ more frequently, blessing my days and making my prayers for others and for the world more inspired.
Keeping our lamps filled with oil by daily prayer for ourselves will ensure that we are ready to see and demonstrate more of Christ in our own lives and as a blessing for humanity. In Mrs. Eddy’s words:
And o’er earth’s troubled, angry sea
I see Christ walk,
And come to me, and tenderly,
Divinely talk.
(Poems, p. 12)
What a wonderful promise of a deep and inspiring connection—one that will uplift, guide, and heal.
