Practical Prayer

BE PRESENT

January means a fresh beginning to many folks. But what if a person has carried a challenge into the new year—perhaps physical pain, shaky finances, relationship conflicts? It says in II Corinthians 5:8, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
As I read this with thoughts of a physical challenge I have been addressing for many months, I experienced a twist in my thinking. Might I say it was an inspired thought? I looked at the word, “body,” and processed it as “an aggregate, a quantity” (Mirriam Webster, 3c). My thought said, “Yes! I want to be absent from the quantity of mistaken ideas about material life. I want to maintain a presence of thought on the Lord.”
Mary Baker Eddy, in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, says, “To be ‘present with the Lord’ is to have, not mere emotional ecstasy or faith, but the actual demonstration and understanding of Life…” How does one do this? She says, “Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual,--neither in nor of matter,--and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well. Sorrow is turned into joy when the body is controlled by spiritual Life, Truth, and Love.”
Having recently chatted with a friend who assigns all physical problems to the physical body, I am eager to stay present with the one all-powerful source of inspiration—Truth and Love. It can never become a body of thought because of its infinite nature. It gives me humble expectation of God/Good. I have had past healings unfold at times that I have felt present with the Lord, and I am eager to find more God-aligned moments in my human experience. When discouragement and discomfort are replaced by an understanding of Life as an idea of God, I move forward rejoicing that I am subject to “the divine powers that be.” (S&H page 249).

SHIFTING THOUGHT
A friend of mine, not a church-goer, told me a story about how he recently dealt with a physical problem. He chose to not follow a path of looking at the body, analyzing symptoms, and trying to control them. He said that he felt like those symptoms were actually the process by which good things were going on without his knowledge of them. He practiced peaceful patience as the symptoms subsided over a couple of months. I heard the celebratory and grateful nature of his voice when the experience was over.

It occurred to me that he had practiced the science of Mind. This Mind being Christ—the absolute Truth that Jesus represented and shared with the world. My friend had overcome error-filled thinking and banished fear. He stood firm in his expectation of Good and waited from a viewpoint of peace and harmony to see its expression.

There is no requirement that one must be a Christian Scientist to practice scientific Christianity. Mary Baker Eddy wrote Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures to help citizens of the world align themselves with ever present good and see its manifestation. There are Jews, Catholics, and those of other religions who have maintained love for their practice, but have also applied the principles that Mary Baker Eddy was inspired to share. Christian Science is wholly a thought-based science and accessible to all.

“O Dreamer,” a lovely hymn to the tune of “Danny Boy,” offers guidance and encouragement to anyone recognizing that it is possible to leave behind mistaken perceptions and awake to the joy and freedom of Truth.

O Dreamer Provided to YouTube by CDBabyO Dreamer · Lisa RedfernA Living Prayer℗ 2015 Lisa RedfernReleased on: 2015-12-13Auto-generated by YouTube.

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