Getting to know God replaces hopelessness and depression with renewed hope that good can and will happen. After all, “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). God, good, brings safety and salvation to each individual.
This week’s Bible lesson, on the topic of “Soul,” includes the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus gave us, and a comment on this prayer from “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy. She writes, “The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer of Soul, not of material sense” (p. 14). This prayer is a reliable pathway to discover and deepen our relationship with Soul, God, helping us face daily challenges with courage and trust in Him.
The Lord’s Prayer was so comforting in a moment of profound need. One afternoon, I received a phone call from someone I didn’t know. The voice on the other end was heavy with despair. The caller told me he was going to end his life, and asked whether I had ever helped someone like him before.
In that instant, time seemed to stand still. I knew that any response from mere human sympathy or intellectual knowledge would fall short. As a Christian Scientist, I had the resources I needed for my healing practice right at hand, including the Bible and Science and Health. I could have easily turned to a familiar passage on God’s ever-present love or protection, something I’d done many times before. But a deeper intuition stirred within me: This moment demanded complete humility. I needed to set aside all reliance on my own thoughts, outlines, or recollections and turn wholly to God.
In prayer I dropped to my knees, so to speak, acknowledging divine Mind, God, as the only true source of comfort and healing. I prayed to listen for God’s direction, to let divine Love guide me. In that sacred stillness, inspiration came clearly: I felt led to ask, “Do you know the Lord’s Prayer?”
He replied faintly, “More or less.”
Gently, I said, “Let’s pray it together.” I told him that if he knew the words, he could join in; if not, he could just listen and follow mentally.
Slowly, I began: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” Line by line, I moved through the prayer Jesus gave us – the petition for God’s kingdom to come, His will to be done, for daily bread, for forgiveness and deliverance from evil, and the acknowledgment of God’s kingdom, power, and glory (see Matthew 6:9-13).
These were more than words! They were leading thought to a realm of harmony and protection for all God’s children – who are entirely spiritual, like their Father. The prayer was leading to the awareness of God’s presence and power. I felt the reverence of being in God’s presence. There was no fear, no urgency, no concern – only the reassurance of good, of something more powerful than any problem. A profound serenity ruled the moment.
When I finished praying, there was a silence on the line. It felt like an endless pause. “Are you still there?” I asked. My heart prayed fervently for the truth to reach him, for divine Love to envelop and uplift his thought. Then, he spoke. His voice had changed – it was lighter, steadier. He said that I had made his day and that he knew what to do. He told me that he wouldn’t end his life and that he would call again in a week, and he thanked me.
True to his word, he called back the following week and told me that things were better. We had conversations for almost a year, and he shared many more healings – physical and emotional – as he turned more and more to God in times of need.
This experience taught me the vital lesson of turning completely from human intellect, however well-intentioned or informed, to the divine source of all true comfort and guidance: divine Love itself. Only by humbly reaching out to God could I meet my own need for inspiration – and, in turn, meet my brother’s need for healing.
It was a beautiful illustration that Christ Jesus’ prayer, “which covers all human needs” (Science and Health, p. 16), has the power to awaken hope, dissolve despair, and turn lives around. Jesus’ assurance was confirmed: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Luke 11:9).
The healing power of the Lord’s Prayer is available to everyone!
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