What do you expect to happen when you pray? Do you expect to be in a better place after you pray? Do you expect improvement to occur in your life? Do you expect to advance on the issue you are praying about?
The answer may largely depend upon what you consider to be prayer.
If prayer is understood to be words uttered in thought, passages read in the Bible, or a passive peace of mind entertained momentarily in thought, results from prayer may be mediocre at best.
But prayer is so much more.
Prayer is action. It’s doing something. It’s the way we live.
For instance, to state the truth, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” is perhaps around a first grade prayer. To show that love to your neighbor is elementary school. To heal a neighbor of a terminal disease from the love you show is junior high. Raising the dead is approaching graduation.
Prayer is more than knowing the truth. It is fulfilled in acting upon the truth, and often great metaphysical demands are put upon us to move from stating a truth in consciousness to seeing it fulfilled in human experience. We must honestly face the objections of mortal mind to the fulfillment of our prayers and un-do them one by one until the truth we state in thought is seen and felt in act and deed.
So, make great demands on your prayers. Expect something to happen and keep persisting with obtaining a deeper understanding of the truth you pray until there is a change.
There is no outer change until there is an inner change. Prayer accomplishes the inner change, but the inner change is not sufficient until the outer changes too. Prayer is both.
Thank you Evan!
One assignment I was given when taking Christian Science class instruction was to read the chapter on Prayer from Science and Health from start to finish. Wow! I still remember that as being one of the highlights of my class experience. If you’ve never read the Prayer chapter from start to finish…or even if you have…I’d highly recommend doing that. I recently read it again and spent an entire day just thinking about the first sentence of this chapter. So if you read it, don’t rush. Be willing to spend the time to really think about it as you read it. Or maybe read it through once at normal speed and then read it again while pausing to savor each sentence.
Here is the first sentence:
The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, — a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love.
Thanks Evan. I was pondering the never ending challenges we face and I sometimes wonder if I am taking on to much or not putting in enough time as I expect to accomplish my efforts and do not always receive complete understanding?
Step by step we get to our final destination. Sometimes we try to take too many steps at once and slip and slide along with bumps, fits and false starts, rather than focusing on taking one quality step after another and standing on a firm foundation with each step. So, you have to figure that one out with God.
Wow! I loved the flags up Evan! I just felt I have to roll up the sleeves and get to work in thought to undo and overcome the believes of mortal mind. I was kind of feeling the demand recently and now your inspiration just confirmed the insight! Thank you so much and for the comment on reading the chapter on Prayer. I’ve been doing so more frequently and always get a sense that I need to dig in deeper…
At first I felt guilty whenever I didn’t demonstrate until I figured out that was a negative thought from mortal mind, not from the divine.
Well Evan, that is ALL I needed to hear today, and it was like mom pulling my ears 😉
Thank you !!
Thanks Evan. I needed to hear your message. Lots of businesses and individuals have mission statements. Mrs. Eddy in Miscellaneous Writings tells us Jesus’ earthly mission. “His earthly mission was to translate substance into its original meaning, Mind.” I find it helpful as a daily active prayer to keep in consciousness a clear sense of the spiritual nature of man, to heal and regenerate false thinking, no matter what material picture confronts me. It becomes a discipline that reaps great rewards. Thanks again for your message.
Thanks, Evan. You have given us many excellent posts over the years, but this, to me, is one of your very best. Raising the idea of prayer from just communing with God or asking God for things to actively seeking to do His will in our everyday lives will abundantly bless mankind. As you say, “Prayer is action. It is doing something. It is the way we live.” A great, great message for us all.
Thanks Walt! Appreciated…
Wow. That says it all.
Thank you soooo much extremely exact, precise and helpful!
No comment. I’m still very elemental in my thinking. I often go blank when trying to pray. I have been working at this for numerous years. Always love help on how to pray. Thanks.
Thanks Evan for putting this out – keeping us doing, not just breezing along. Thanks to Brian for his helpful ‘share’, and to all these helpful comments. Now, to DO IT.
Wow!! Right on. Definitely a keeper. Keeps us going so well. Thank you Evan.
The perfect truth!