Whenever I pray about a world problem, it helps me feel less abstract in my prayers if I can see how to purify my own heart on that particular issue, even in a small way. Christ Jesus encouraged his followers, “First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5). Mary Baker Eddy follows up on this theme when she directs the Christian healer to “learn what in thine own mentality is unlike ‘the anointed,’ and cast it out; then thou wilt discern the error in thy patient’s mind that makes his body sick, and remove it, and rest like the dove from the deluge” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 355).
So recently, with corruption prevalent in the news, I began to pray about this topic and to consider in what ways I could rule corruption out of my own thoughts. The first inspiration I had was Paul’s statement, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (II Corinthians 11:3). Well, this hit home right away. On the surface, I could see how often the busyness of human life made things feel anything but simple, and I saw how I sometimes let myself become more absorbed in human details instead of spiritual mindedness, which the Bible tells us is “life and peace” (Romans 8:6).
I saw how I sometimes let myself become more absorbed in human details instead of spiritual mindedness, which the Bible tells us is “life and peace.”
