"How do you pray for yourself daily?"

People from around the world tell us . . .

Cali McClure, Barrington, Illinois

I pray first thing every morning by listening with my whole heart for God’s direction or messages to me. I pray about any immediate issues I’m dealing with in my life, replacing any thoughts of discord with the spiritual facts of my being, of harmony and peace—gained from my study of the Bible and Science and Health. This kind of prayer purifies my thought about myself and others, and compels me to thank God for His goodness and love.

To stay focused, I write down thoughts that come to me as I study the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson found in the Christian Science Quarterly. These notes usually become Christian Science treatments, which are specific prayers for a particular problem or need. I pray to deeply realize my ability to express all of God’s qualities because I am His image. This further helps replace incorrect thoughts or habits with the acknowledgment that only God and His goodness are present in my life.

Daily I listen for fresh new insights. Then, in the evening or the next morning, I read my notes to see how my prayer has affected my day—how inspiration or healing has taken place.

One illustration I had of the power of this kind of consistent prayer happened several years ago, when my thumb became infected and very painful. As it continued to swell and get worse, I became frightened.

I continued my daily prayer to see myself as God sees me, as His image, perfect and pure. I asked God for insights to help me see myself this way in order to bring healing.

As I prayed, a thought occurred regarding a movie I had seen several days earlier. Several parts of the movie had depicted a level of depravity that had disturbed me and even caused me to feel great condemnation toward its producers.

I realized that by accepting impurity as a part of man’s nature, my thought had become “infected,” and I was seeing impurity manifested in my experience. I needed to correct thoughts of condemnation with the humility to see man’s true status—not just me, but the producers of the film, too—as the beloved children of God.

During this time of prayer, many thoughts came of man’s pure and innocent original nature, uncontaminated by evil. I regained a feeling of peace, and that very day the condition was completely healed. I feel certain that my daily prayers for myself prepared me for the receptivity and insights that led to my healing.

Russ Gerber, Natick, Massachusetts

I’ve been fine-tuning my daily prayers. A couple of recent lessons:

First, don’t try to run the show. Let God direct your prayers. That came home to me the last time I read the proverb “Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.” Letting God’s thoughts be established in my consciousness is having faith that the divine Mind is perfectly equipped to know what His child needs every moment, and that this Mind is fully capable of conveying that knowledge. The question is, How closely am I listening?

The other lesson has to do with light. If I start to wander down a “what if” trail when I’m praying, letting worry slip in, wondering what I’ll do if—I think of light. When light confronts darkness, it only has to be true to what it is. It only has to be light in order to do its work. When my deepest desire is to be true to myself as God’s image and likeness, I find the breakthrough ideas that solve problems and heal ailments come shining through.

Robin Weiland, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

As my understanding of God has deepened over the years, so has the way I pray for myself.

I used to pray every night, mainly in gratitude for the good I had experienced that day. Soon I saw the need to start my day with prayer—to acknowledge the good that I knew God had planned for me even before I experienced it. And I began to find that the more consistently I prayed, the better prepared I was to respond to any difficulties that came up, such as the symptoms of illness, or relationship problems, that might deny the presence of God in my life.

In order to prepare myself even better for the day ahead, I began to pray the “Daily Prayer” that Mary Baker Eddy gave in the Church Manual (see page 41). I noticed Mrs. Eddy didn’t describe daily prayer as merely a helpful activity, but as a “duty”—a duty to God.

Obedience to this duty to acknowledge God as the only power and presence in my life and in the entire universe—regardless of any suggestion otherwise—was (and still is) challenging at times. Yet I know I’m being true to what God knows me to be—to my spiritual identity as His child. That spiritual identity includes health, fulfillment, and love.

Science and Health says, “Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God.” In thinking about this, I have realized that because I reflect God as Mind, I can be conscious only of God—of His thoughts and ideas—and am therefore praying constantly. And the more disciplined I am about acknowledging God’s presence when I awake each morning, the more I am able to be consistently conscious of His goodness, and the smoother my day goes.

Louis Benjamin, Johannesburg, South Africa

I often begin my prayers with this line from the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come.” Then I draw assurance from Mary Baker Eddy’s spiritual interpretation of that line in Science and Health, “Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.”

As I see it, through praying regularly each one of us can experience the joys of living in God’s kingdom right now, without help or hindrance from any third party. It comes to us individually through God’s government, which leads us to trustworthy self-government, providing the only real freedom there is—spiritual freedom, from fear, lack, sorrow, feelings of hopelessness, and from sickness.

As a result of my prayers each morning, I am learning that what I perceive through the physical senses does not define or bind me. There is something deeper, more meaningful, and of greater substance, that supports and governs me—the power of Truth and Love. With this realization, I find I am more at peace, I develop better relationships with other people, and I enter the kingdom—that state of consciousness where God is supreme.

I pray each day for the dawning of this recognition of His kingdom, both in my thought and that of all humankind. And I draw special comfort from this passage in Hebrews: “And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.”

God’s kingdom is here, now. The door is open. God is present, always.

Hazel Jones, Kodiak, Alaska

My prayers boil down to one thing: I cannot be separated from God. Very simple. Very basic. I know that this is the absolute truth. God is the lawmaker, and there is nothing apart from Him. And I endeavor to know that, just as this is true for me, it is true for everyone.

I study the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson each day, using the ideas in it to pray for myself and situations in the world. It helps me to ask, “Am I really knowing what God knows right now?”

“The scientific statement of being” from Science and Health and the Lord’s Prayer also help me spring right to the healing idea I need. Mary Baker Eddy wrote that the Lord’s Prayer is the “prayer which covers all human needs,” and I like praying it with her spiritual interpretation of each line given in Science and Health.

For example, with “Our Father which art in heaven,” she wrote, “Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious.” These ideas help me see that harmony is what is really true, whatever the situation, since our Father-Mother God is the lawmaker.

And the lines, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”—along with “And Love is reflected in love”—make me ask myself, “What haven’t I forgiven today that I should?”

Sometimes I don’t like what I hear on the news, and wonder if I’m feeding the violence, or if I really am being loving by putting everything in God’s care. Then I try to always remember that God, the only lawmaker, is also divine Love.

And I do feel that, as a result of my prayers, so many ways have opened for me to share Christian Science with others, which has led to warm friendships and to their own interest in spiritual healing—and to healings. Seeing every day that no one is ever separated from God, and remembering that what God knows is all we need to know, do make a difference for the world around us, too.

Carol Rullman, Earlysville, Virginia

Once my husband asked me if I had specific prayers for various situations. The answer was no. My prayers change daily, although their foundation remains the same. They begin with a humble and expectant attitude, a willingness to let go of personal plans and agendas, and to let God do the work. Cultivating this trusting relationship with God allows me to see through misconceptions I may have about myself and others, and guides my prayers into right action.

What motivates my prayer is simply the desire to defend the Christ in me—and in each of us. By this I mean my receptivity to the voice of Truth. The Christ speaks to me moment by moment, inspiring me and showing evidence of itself in healing and in giving me a more spiritual view of life.

There isn’t a designated time of day I pray for myself, since prayer involves being alert to the thoughts we entertain of ourselves and others every moment. My prayer is daily and ongoing. For me, one of the most important aspects of this activity is the expression of gratitude, a quality that binds me to God’s goodness and enables me to “pray without ceasing.” This prayer is unselfish because each time we overcome a challenge through prayer, we’ve demonstrated a truth for the world.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice, health, holiness, love—the kingdom of heaven—reign within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until they finally disappear.” This has been a wonderful guideline for my prayers each day—a code of conduct that blesses not just one, but all.

Klaus-Hendrik Herr, Berlin, Germany

I love the image of Moses and the burning bush, which illustrates how Moses became aware that he was on “holy ground”—that is, in the presence of God. Basically I see prayer for myself as sitting down in His presence. For me, prayer at its best is when I come closer and closer to seeing the allness of God and am in awe of His goodness.

Starting with the divine allness is so important for me because it gives clarity to my prayer. It sets the tone and prepares me for my day.

But I’ve found that my prayer doesn’t work when I start it with I or me or a problem of some sort. Rather, prayer for myself needs to begin with You, or God. I love to connect the word You with the names for God, as Mary Baker Eddy used them in her writings, names such as Love, Principle, Soul, Life, Spirit, Truth, and Mind.

My prayer might be: “God, You are Love, and Your perfect love is the only power governing me today.” Depending on my needs, sometimes God is especially meaningful to me as Soul; at other times it is divine Truth, or Love, etc.

Thinking about God in the different ways represented by these synonyms helps me grasp His allness and grandeur as the supreme “I am.” When each day I submit to this divine “I am,” that is, really understand more of what is true about God, this leads me to understand my own being as His reflection or “image,” as the Bible calls it.

Science and Health expands on this to explain that “man,” which includes men and women, is “the compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind.” The most beautiful part of my prayer is accepting for myself that I am this compound spiritual idea of Spirit—that I am this spiritual man!

This is the “holy ground” I feel I need to reach. From here, specific prayer treatment for any issues I am faced with can start. This would include denouncing and denying anything that speaks against my spiritual sonship as “the full representation of Mind.” Doing this means that I act in obedience to the supreme God—who continues to reveal Himself to me in powerful ways I cannot miss.

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