Fight Fire with Prayer

Recently on the news, there have been many reports of fires in various parts of the country. Many people have lost their homes; valuable property has been destroyed as well as lives lost. Can prayer be an ally in our fight against fires? I believe it can.

A few years ago, I witnessed how prayer can eliminate fire. I was working at a new job that was right near a hillside. We started having many brush fires which was a concern to us all. The fire department was called on a regular basis. Many of us started to pray about this situation.

In my prayer, I was led to look up Mary Baker Eddy’s glossary definition of fire in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures which states that fire is “Fear; remorse; lust; hatred; destruction; affliction purifying and elevating man.”(586:13,14)

I knew that the place the fire needed to be burned out was not out there, but in my own thought. So I took each word in this definition of fire and applied it to my present life.

First was fear. What was I afraid of? So far I was very unhappy in my new job. I was afraid that I was stuck in this job and had no other options for work. This I saw was a lie. I was about my Father’s business and His work was always rewarding, fruitful, and harmonious. God was directing my career and placed me where I can bless and be blessed the most. There are never limits to the wonderful opportunities in His employment.

What about remorse? I had worked for a company for over 12 years where I had been very happy. But recently the company was dissolved and taken over by my present employer. I kept rehearsing over and over in my thinking that the company should not have closed. I kept wondering why my old company closed instead of the one I was presently working for. This line of reasoning was getting me nowhere. How can God be at one company and absent from another? God is everywhere. I could never for one moment be separated from Him. He fills all space with His love. I needed to feel this love right where I was.

How was lust part of this picture? In my thought, I felt my manager had a lust for power. She seemed to intimidate all of us. We were like putty in her hands. Many of my friends were either being fired or quitting their jobs. The more I thought about what she was doing, the more I saw myself hating her and my job. I remember calling a Christian Science practitioner and reciting all my problems to her. She pointed out this statement in Science and Health, “Nothing is real and eternal, — nothing is Spirit, — but God and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense.”(71:1-4)

I began to realize that I could not see an evil person because if I did then God must be evil. I knew that had to be a lie. The Bible says of God, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity:” (Hab. 1:13(to 1st :) God is love and would never create an evil person or cause anything that is unlike His perfect nature. I knew that in reality all that was going was God’s goodness and nothing else. If I was accepting anything else then I believed that evil was real and it could cause destruction in my experience. I was here only to bring my understanding of God. This understanding included only perfect God and perfect man any other thought would be destructive and unproductive.

How was this experience purifying and elevating me? I was lifting my thought to a higher idea of God and man. I realized that my manager was not the problem it was my mistaken thought about her and my company. Every day I worked to control my thinking. I knew that harmony was the truth and inharmony was the lie. God was in charge of this company and not persons. I was working for God and so was everyone else.

I made a point to see all the good qualities that my manager expressed such as order, beauty, and thoroughness in her work. I began having a better working relationship with her and harmony on the job. The manager soon resigned and was replaced by someone whom everyone was able to work with more harmoniously. Soon the brush fires stopped. Their have been no more fires since.

My work experience at the company became satisfying. Within a few years, I was able to leave the company on a pleasant note

We can heal fires in our thought and our thoughts will heal the fires taking place in our environment. We can do this right now. We can stand up to the belief that anything in our lives or anything in our world can be out of control. God good is in control of our life and He is in control of our world. Let’s begin to accept this divine fact and thank God for His loving administration of all things.