When it comes time for me to put in my volunteer time at the hospital's chapel, it gives me a space to pause and pray big. This isn't a time where I treat every single prayer request that gets written in the chapel's "Prayer Request" notebook. But it is a time where my prayer goes out to affirm that life and hope trump death and despair in this hospital, this community and everywhere.Today's prayer requests cover a wide range: for the healing of pain, to bring unity to departments and families, for recovery. I notice there are many requests for prayer on behalf of others: a son-in-law, an uncle, the survivors from the Peruvian earthquake, the laundry staff, a sister, a mother, the family.
With my prayer, I don't try to bring God down to the level of human misfortune, but raise my thought to God - to God's perfection, love and constant care.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
This might be called a prayer of affirmation and gratitude and of a desire for growth in the understanding of God as omnipotent. I see God as all-good. This is intriguing to me and as I pray, I keep seeing how much of the flotsam of daily thought I can shed to feel a totally loving and powerful presence of God.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
It is clear that God does not cause suffering, nor is God changeable - from angry, to appeased, pleased, etc. God is constant.
God is love.
Would God use suffering as a tool to make us turn to Him? I don't think so. Would a loving parent purposefully cause harm to their child, in order for the child to turn to them? Mistakes, disease, evil are not God ordained but are the absence of God.
The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless woes, turn us like tired children to the arms of divine Love.
My prayer is to affirm that the Christ is already active in all of these requests -and that Christ's harmonizing influence can be felt whenever and wherever there is a prayer for it.
When a hungry heart petitions the divine Father-Mother God for bread, it is not given a stone, — but more grace, obedience, and love. - Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 127
I pray and affirm that we are made in God's image and likeness - and that is good. Each person is complete and has whatever resources are needed for their spiritual growth. Gratitude helps to open our eyes to the good already here. God knows our needs before we even voice them. And God, Love, has met our needs now, then and in the future.
Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.
The omnipotence of peace, the felt presence of Love and the permanence of man's inseparable relationship to God is reflected in this little chapel and this prayer goes out to the community and the world. God is always present, God always hears us.
And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always....
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