Starting your morning with prayer
A Christian Science perspective: How devoting mornings to prayer brought healing of rage.
As we try to navigate the highs and lows of life, we may think that once everything falls into place, then we will feel peace. Through prayer and study of the Bible, I’ve come to see that when we first put our trust in God, we find our peace, and that is when things fall into place.
For instance, I was going through a particularly chaotic time and found myself more quick to rage. Every little thing would set me off.
In order to find peace, I felt I needed to spend more time praying, and I needed to do it before the chaos of the day. So I began to set my morning alarm to go off 15 minutes earlier. It was not a huge amount of time, but enough for me to really set my thoughts on God before I actually put my feet on the floor.
When I woke up, I started my prayers with knowing that God is Love (see I John 4:16). Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Monitor, says on page 454 of her book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures”: “Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way.” This meant to me that God’s inspiration and designation are helping us navigate how to handle logistics and plans. Love’s inspiration helps us plan what unfolds for our day.
My Bible study has shown me that God’s plan for us will always be greater and more beautiful than anything we can outline. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ ” (New International Version).
What a relief! God wants us to succeed and prosper. He does not want us to suffer or fail. There is no harm or danger in trusting Him, because He is leading the way to health, harmony, and abundance. This is based on the understanding that we are made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27) – of divine Love, and that as God’s beloved children, His love for us is continuous.
Mrs. Eddy also says in Science and Health, “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings” (page vii). Leaning on God, Love, in every decision, in every challenge, and even with every relationship, allows us to see God’s plan. It was helpful to know waking up every morning that this is God’s day, Love’s day. All that I needed to accomplish was already set before me by God.
As I prayed with these ideas every morning, the rage and frustration started to melt away. It changed how I reacted to conflict and situations that came up. While not every problem immediately went away, changes that did occur gave me faith that God hears our prayers and is always here for us.
The Bible says: “O Lord, in the morning you will hear my voice; in the morning I will direct my prayer to you, and I will watch expectantly” (Psalms 5:3, Modern English Version). Sometimes we get discouraged and frustrated when our prayers do not seem to be answered. We might say, “I have always prayed that way, and nothing changes.” But Lamentations says: “the Lord’s faithful love never ends. Every morning he shows it in new ways!” (3:22, 23, Easy to Read Version) This tells us that God’s mercies are new daily.
Every morning the sun rises. We never doubt that the sun will come up. Sometimes clouds obscure the sun, but we still know that it is there and that it will continue to bring light and warmth. Each day we are continuing to grow in our understanding of God and our relation to Him as His spiritual reflection. And each morning we start from a new standpoint from where we were the day before. God hears our prayers, and He is giving us inspiration to direct our paths.