Prayers That Are Always Answered

Not everyone will like what I have to say here, but that's OK. I'll say it anyway, and it might just resonate with some. Prayer can be a dicey subject; many times people would sooner talk about the intimate details of their sex lives than get involved in a conversation about prayer. For some people, that topic conjures up images of superstition and anti-intellectual, unscientific bias. For others, prayer evokes strongly-held (if not fanatical) convictions that easily translate to "It's my way or the highway." Yet, prayer is an essential element of conscious human life, whether or not we're prepared to acknowledge it. You can't stay on your life's track without it. Yes, I know that's a radical (and, perhaps, unscientific) statement, but that doesn't make it any less true.

Besides having an aversion to prayer, people also bring to the idea a great deal of personal baggage and misconceptions. As a man who has struggled with prayer for almost sixty years, I can attest to the fact that prayer itself, in addition to the concept of prayer, evolves over time. If your understanding and experience of prayer rests unchanged since elementary school, then it's no wonder you might be having difficulty with it. The one thing that I can categorically say about prayer is that it has nothing whatever to do with telling God how to run the universe. What prayer is and why it's important will take a little explaining.

There are two fundamental concepts that ought to help you put prayer in its proper context. The first concept is that prayer changes you. As you focus your intention on aligning yourself with the Spirit of the Universe (however you want to define It), that alignment begins to take place. Your deepest and highest Self exists in alignment with that Spirit and, when you use prayer to align your mind and heart with that essential core of yourself, you deepen your personal integration. You allow your destiny (the reason why you're here) to deepen its hold on your understanding and your freedom of choice. Your decision-making powers become more focused on healing and self-integration rather than on distraction, escapism and dissociation. Your fragmented humanity begins to heal.

The second concept has to do with an appreciation of your role in the universe. If you can imagine the universe as a living entity, you will begin to comprehend what that means. There is life in the universe (just look in the mirror), so the universe has life. There is consciousness in the universe (who is it that's looking in the mirror?), so the universe has consciousness. There is freedom of choice in the universe (you can look away anytime you want), so the universe has freedom of choice. Think of yourself as an organ of the universe: you are its life, its consciousness, and its power to choose. When you choose, the Universe itself shifts. Prayer aligns your choice; therefore, whey you pray, the universe shifts in response. What you choose and what you do with that choice has universal consequences.

I claimed that there are two prayers that are always answered. The first one is, by far, the most essential and necessary. It's the one-word prayer, "Help!" Many times, that prayer represents a Copernican revolution in a person's heart and soul. It indicates a paradigm shift away from self-reliance and toward spiritual reliance. It signals a weakening — if not the death — of the cancer of pride. That's because prayer, far from being a supposed means of controlling the outcomes of events, consists rather in a fundamental choice to accept the world on the world's terms. True prayer is not done with words, rather it's an opening of the mind and heart to the still, small Voice within Who speaks only the truth with utter simplicity. The 'Help!' prayer signals your willingness (at long last?) to listen.

The second prayer that's always answered is also the most dangerous prayer in our spiritual repertoire. This prayer says, "God, give me patience!" Think about it: if you want to develop your strength, what do you need to do? Likewise, if you want to increase your running speed or your endurance, what do you have to do? If you want to increase your virtuosity at playing an instrument, or singing, or drawing, or writing, or nearly anything else, what do you have to do? That's right: you have to do more of it! So, if you pray that the Spirit of the universe might grant you patience, what can you expect to receive? Again, that's right: you'll get plenty of opportunity to practice your patience. That's why I say that this is the most dangerous prayer of all. Don't pray for patience unless you're prepared for major aggravation!

If prayer isn't already a part of your daily routine, you might want to think seriously about starting to give it a place of honor in your day. You don't need to worry about what to say . . . that's not important at all. What's important is your willingness to open your mind and heart to the Sprit of the Universe and to listen to the silent Voice that communicates with you beneath words, beneath images, and directly heart-to-heart. Will prayer change things? All that's required is that it'll change you. God, I suspect, can take care of the rest.

Prayers That Are Always Answered - To learn more about this author, visit Les Brown's Website.

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