The lifesaving power of daily prayer
An account reported in The Christian Science Monitor earlier this year inspired me to consider deeply the power of committed daily prayer. The section of the report subheaded, “The compassion in seeing everyone in a new light,” tells about Antoinette Tuff, who worked as a bookkeeper at a school in Georgia. She had a practice of reading the 23rd Psalm – which begins, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” – early each morning. Although she was facing serious marital and financial troubles at the time, Ms. Tuff said starting her day with God helped her leave home “in a peace when the wind is raging.”
The article reports that early one morning when Ms. Tuff was in the front office at work, a man walked in carrying an AK-47 and announced, “We’re all going to die today.” Ms. Tuff was frightened, but her motherly instinct led her to talk with the 20-year-old gunman. She recalled telling him, “Mmm-mm, we’re not doing that today.” While on the phone with 911, she assured him, “We’re not going to hate you, baby,” and “It’s going to be all right, sweetie – I just want you to know that I love you though, OK?” The young man ultimately surrendered to the authorities, and no one was hurt. (See Christa Case Bryant, “Citizen problem-solvers: Advice to the new Congress on gridlock,” Jan. 3, 2023.)
How much the world needs people prepared to comfort and heal. To begin each day with prayer that affirms the presence of an all-loving, governing intelligence that is God is perhaps the most important preparation we can make to productively meet whatever comes our way.
Scriptural texts are a strong foundation for prayer. I love to pray with a spiritual interpretation of the 23rd Psalm written by the Monitor’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy. It begins, “[DIVINE LOVE] is my shepherd; I shall not want.
“[LOVE] maketh me to lie down in green pastures: [LOVE] leadeth me beside the still waters.
“[LOVE] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 578).
Spiritual sense could be described as a conviction that God is all-inclusive Love, more powerful than fear or threats of any kind. As another psalm puts it, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear” (Psalms 46:1, 2).
Spiritual sense is natural to us as God’s offspring, but it needs to be cultivated. Anyone who prays regularly to know and feel God’s ever-present care has a basis from which to rise above fear and to be calm, strong, and helpful. However buried this spiritual sense may appear to be in ourselves or others, it is the truth of everyone’s being as an expression of God. Becoming conscious of our spiritual sense through daily prayer and meditating on spiritual truth prepares us to better respond to people’s natural yearning for healing love.
I experienced the power of daily prayer during a threatening situation when I was in college. While I was studying alone one evening in a secluded place, a man approached and told me he was going to rape me. I felt terrified, but right away it came to me to say that God was his Father and mine, so I was his sister, and he didn’t want to hurt me. I confess I sounded calmer than I felt, but the words calmed the man. My practice of daily prayer – including the Lord’s Prayer, which begins, “Our Father” – enabled me to speak to him in a way that reached his heart. He began to cry and tell me some of his problems. I told him that God loved him. Soon he left without touching me.
Taking time each day to establish God’s reality, presence, and love for all creation is a rock in times of trouble. It keeps us ready to bring healing to all situations.
A hymn describes this kind of lifesaving prayer:
A whispered word may touch the heart
And call it back to life;
A look of love bid sin depart
And still unholy strife.
(“Christian Science Hymnal,” No. 303)
