We all know the world is a dangerous place. What’s to be done? Are those of us living in relative comfort helpless observers of an unpredictable world? Can we do anything to cast the net of protection beyond our own homes and families?

Oh, yes, we surely can! We have a net that stretches wide—prayer. Everyone can pray—and almost everyone admits they do. I’ve come to appreciate that through prayer, everyone on earth can help troubled spots or courageous workers. Through prayer, our hearts can reach where our embraces or voices cannot.

But what kind of prayer is effective?

I love the sentiment of a verse in the US Navy Hymn: “Lord, guard and guide the men who fly through the great spaces in the sky; Be with them always in the air, in darkening clouds or sunlight fair. Eternal Father, hear our prayer for those in peril in the air.”

That’s a prayer of petition, a request to God to intervene, to protect. I find these prayers soften and humble my heart to yield to God. They make me more receptive to God’s assurance that He is present and cares for all.

Prayers of gratitude can have the same effect, such as, “Thank you, God, for taking care of my loved one. Thank you for making me aware You are there in that place that seems so dangerous, caring for each of your dear children.” These prayers awaken in me a more lively awareness of the presence, power and willingness of the Supreme One as a force for good in the very place where fear, chaos and danger want to dominate.

I’ve also learned to pray another way. It’s what might be called a prayer of reason or affirmation. It’s carefully thinking through a situation from the basis of a known set of spiritual laws rather than starting with material circumstances or a sincere but blind faith. When I really reach the heart of this kind of prayer, it goes beyond logic (although it is logical) and overflows with the warmth of love from the Supreme One. I not only feel His presence, but I know it. I’m certain of it. And this certainty has an effect.

It was prayer based on these gentle truths that protected me when high-pressure fuel lines ruptured in the afterburner section of a Navy jet I was flying. The mechanics said it was a miracle a disastrous in-flight fire never erupted.

My prayer of reason is based on God as All. God to me is divine Love. He is the presence of infinite caring and embracing protection. To be convinced of that entirely is not always easy for me. The world of hurtful circumstances is often overwhelmingly persuasive. But I find that when I’m meek, when I am childlike, loving and willing, there comes to me a soft yet powerful awareness of the allness of good. I believe my approaching this plateau of thought is not only a blessing to me, but it extends out beyond me as a great blessing to mankind and an incalculable benefit to all who are in harm’s way.

If God or Spirit is good, and all, and if the beings He creates are actually the image and likeness of Spirit, it must be possible to see His creation right where strife and war loom. And that prayer of reason, which opens our thought to appreciate good we never imagined from other bases, results in marvelous good.

And just think—what results could we obtain if we started even our prayers of petition and of gratitude from the same basis as our prayers of reason—that of the allness of God? What if we embraced, even as we are asking and praising, a God who is unchanging and ever-present good? Wouldn’t this rule out evil, harm, danger, even malice and accident, as impossible in His presence? The Bible says of God, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.”

It seems to me this is the prayer that will make the most difference, for those in conflict, for those downtrodden, for those sorrowful or sick. And it’s a difference you and I can make every time we raise our thought in prayer.