You can make a difference
Daily world news can make us wonder what we can do to help alleviate the sufferings of humanity. Front-burner concerns – the downward financial spiral, the housing market, unemployment, bold acts of aggression, and a legion of other issues – all beg for immediate action. Many of us wish we could contribute something positive to tip the balance toward workable solutions.
Reasoning from the premise that God is infinite good, that His wisdom is unerring and ever available, prepares thought to see what we can most effectively contribute to the solution. God reveals Himself in ways that we can understand and make practical. No problem is bigger than infinite Love, and no one's understanding of Love is too small to make a difference.
It is in God's eternal goodness that we find refuge and assurance. Turning to Him for guidance isn't escaping into a state of denial. It's tapping a source available to all of us. It's honoring the God whose power is always available. Drawing on that source, that power, supports our conviction that God's love is ever present, even in situations that seem desperate. If you look carefully, it's likely that you'll find evidence of mercy, preservation, and safety, even in very grim conditions. Acknowledging everyone's true nature as God's spiritual idea, wholly good and pure, offers a starting point for reasoning spiritually about whatever local, national, or world situations are taking place.
Given the news reports today, the need to rise above the rubble of despair and destruction actually impels our daily prayer for humanity. This prayer, this spiritual reasoning, generates healing concepts and ideas that strengthen our conviction in God's ever-present guidance and open thought to practical steps that will fulfill our desire to make a difference.
The founder of this newspaper, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote this in an article for the Boston Herald, March 1898, titled "Other ways than by war": "Let us have the molecule of faith that removes mountains, – faith armed with the understanding of Love, as in divine Science, where right reigneth" ("The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," p. 278).
We can be certain that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," as the Bible says in James 5:16. Praying persistently, buoyed by a firm conviction of the God-power that undergirds prayer, is far better than ruminating over disaster or indulging in thoughts of hate. When these contrary thoughts attempt to upset our resolve to remain focused on what God is revealing, we have the divine right to dislodge them.
Reasoning from a spiritual basis by acknowledging God as the only true power is a prayer of grace, forgiveness, and healing. It's our expressed desire to commit to witnessing God's light shining in the hearts of men and women everywhere. The ability of each of us to reflect that light in our own hearts will surely and certainly open the way for others to feel and know "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding" (Phil. 4:7).
So let's not be cowed into thinking that our prayers are ineffective. We can actively look for evidence of healing in matters about which we're praying, and we can rejoice in even the smallest signs of progress. God knows the thoughts we cherish and our efforts to love our neighbors near and far. In the words of Mary Baker Eddy: "Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds" ("Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," p. 1).
God's law rules, bringing comfort and healing, and as we pray to see divine justice prevail, we'll feel His calming presence and know with a certainty that our prayers are not in vain. By putting our weight into this right scale, we will have made a contribution that will not go unfulfilled.
