Pray For Our World
An article on how to pray about terrorism.
Part of our mission is to pray for the world, and it is clear from the newspaper headlines that this prayerful work is greatly needed. Recently, as a church body, we have been metaphysically addressing the problem of terrorism. This means that we have been praying about this problem as we study the Christian Science Weekly Bible Lessons, the writings of the Discover and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, and a wide array of periodicals from the Christian Science Publishing Society.
In this post, church members share their healing inspiration regarding the global issue of terrorism.
From the Bible:
“I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.”
(Psalms 91:2-3)
“Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day: Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.”
(Psalms 91: 5-6)
From the Christian Science textbook,
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
“Ages pass, but this leaven of Truth is ever at work. It must destroy the entire mass of error and so be eternally glorified in man’s spiritual freedom.”
(S&H, 118)
The key for me is this: The leaven of Truth is ever at work and it must destroy the entire mass of error. Nothing can withstand divine Truth and Love.
Answers from the Christian Science Weekly Bible Lesson
While studying this week’s Bible Lesson: “Ancient and Modern Necromancy, alias Mesmerism and Hypnotism, Denounced,” I found the following passages to be incredibly helpful.
The idea is to pray to understand the difference between the evil man and the perfect man, who is the man at peace:
“I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.”
(Psalms 37:35–37)“A wicked mortal is not the idea of God. He is little else than the expression of error. To suppose that sin, lust, hatred, envy, hypocrisy, revenge, have life abiding in them, is a terrible mistake.”
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures 289:8–11)“Nothing is real and eternal, — nothing is Spirit, — but God and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense.”
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures 71:1)
Question: How do you terrorize an idea?
Answer: you don’t. As we are all ideas of the infinite Mind God, there is nothing that can come between an idea and it’s source. And since we live and move in his kingdom we are spiritually clothed with the armor of his Love.
God vaporizes fear
Fear, or terrorism, needs several things in order to succeed in its mission to disrupt harmony. It needs an object to fear (a terrorist), a target for the fear (an innocent, helpless mortal), a dire consequence of the fear (death, harm, anxiety, etc.), a place to hide, the intelligence to act, and the power to make its threats real. If it lacked even one of these things, fear would cease to exist because it wouldn’t be known, believed, or active.
The fact is that it doesn’t lack just one of these things, it lacks every one of these things. None of these components exist. They are fantasies. Man is the expression of Soul. In S&H it says, “Soul can never express anything inferior to Spirit”. So there is only one kind of man. God is only good, and good is omnipotent and fills all space. There is no place to hide from and no opposing power to God. Mind creates all and knows all that is real. There is no second tier power or authority and no subset of creation where it can exist. The fact of the allness of God and His creation vaporizes every one of the notions that fear and terrorism would need in order to touch us.
We invite you to work with us as we continue to pray for the world and pray to heal the world of terrorism. We find the Christian Science Monitor newspaper a very helpful source of information in this project, as it is also their mission to bless the world through honest reporting.
