Once a man was asked, “What did you gain by regularly praying to God?” The man replied, “Nothing…but let me tell you what I lost: anger, ego, greed, depression, insecurity, and fear of death.” Sometimes, the answer to our prayers is not gaining, but losing, which ultimately is the gain.
18 thoughts on “When the gain from prayer is what you lose”
I feel so blessed today! A great Daily Lift. A wonderful Bible Lesson on Mind and now your always thoughtful and uplifting blog. Wow! Of course we don’t gain anything by praying because we already reflect the One Perfect God – we have it all already, and like it points out, what we lose are the false negative beliefs. Thanks Evan for always finding these great sayings to help us.
Thank you Linda, I woke up and read this mornings SV kind of half asleep. And I wasn’t really understanding why “we’re not gaining anything by praying.” But you are oh so right, we naturally have already inherited our position as God’s PERFECT sons and daughters.
Indeed. Now doesn’t this hymn stanza make more sense?
It’s from Mary Baker Eddy’s “Mother’s Evening Prayer”
O make me glad for every scalding tear,
For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear
No ill, — since God is good, and loss is gain.
Diane, I love the correlation you made with “Mother’s Evening Prayer”. It is so profound. Thank you for sharing. You’ve given me much loveliness to contemplate today.
It always amazes me. The inspiration that come from this blog that opens our eyes to a new truth that blasts out new inspiring information that helps us all.. This is one of those days. Thanks everyone.
Thank you, Evan & fellow followers. You are all an inspiration and so encouraging. I look forward to the “reminder” to began each day with God or Mind this week. I like …“God is good and lose is gain.” MBE
Yes! As Thomas Merton said: “All mature spirituality is about letting go.” And as Meister Eckhart said: “The spiritual life has much more to do with subtraction than it does with addition.” Love this! Thanks so much, Evan. Blessings to All!
Thanks so much for this reminder. Like, Diane, the first thing I thought of when I saw the subject was the hymn with “loss is gain.” I have lost much matter based thinking, including fear, and gained peace of mind. Thank you God!!!
So true regarding Mrs. Eddy’s poem, Mother’s Evening Prayer. As the story in the Bible of the talents points out, he who trusts in God and invests with confidence gains much, those who waver kind of stand still, but are still hoping. Those who hide their talents seem to have nothing, but when the parable points out that even “that which he hath * is taken away, it too is a blessing! Because what he seems to possess is fear, mistrust, belief of lack, etc. so he too was blessed by the removal of those things. No man is ”unblessed” by his Maker, God.
This is so true! And how light and lifted we become to let the false, but seemingly heaviness of things that are untrue about our character and nature fall away. Two pieces of inspiration that stood out to me after reading this post: The first was pointed out by Linda, we don’t gain anything by consistent prayer because we have already inherited ALL that God has to offer. We are already there. Already perfect, whole, complete, needing nothing. But we are learning to understand this about our true nature which can sometimes feel like we aren’t there yet, but we are! Yea! The second thing that came to me was from “Science and Health” pg 57 line 24, by Mary Baker Eddy in the chapter on marriage: ” The wintry blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affection, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to God…”
Thank you Trista for your comment.
Thank you dear Evan, to let us ponder this wise proverb in your today’s SpiritView.
With regards to this proverb one truth sentence by MBEddy comes to my mind , namely from Science and Health p. 2 – line 15 – 16: ,,Prayer cannot change the Science of being, but it tends to bring us into harmony with it . ” It also is true that earnest prayer brings us closer to God. Just what Trista said. And I think that is very desirable!
Thank you Diana w.a. for mentionIng Mrs. Eddy’s poem ,,Mother’s Evening Prayer ” which is very suitable in respect of Evan’s today’s SpiritView, and the song is so comforting! Am very grateful for this healing blog of Evan and for all your inspiring comments! ! ☺
Just at this moment while I read all the wonderful comments I became very grateful for the awareness that we a l l are blessing each other with our boundless inspirational ideas to each SpiritView of Evan – thank you all so very much!
I feel so blessed today! A great Daily Lift. A wonderful Bible Lesson on Mind and now your always thoughtful and uplifting blog. Wow! Of course we don’t gain anything by praying because we already reflect the One Perfect God – we have it all already, and like it points out, what we lose are the false negative beliefs. Thanks Evan for always finding these great sayings to help us.
Thank you Linda, I woke up and read this mornings SV kind of half asleep. And I wasn’t really understanding why “we’re not gaining anything by praying.” But you are oh so right, we naturally have already inherited our position as God’s PERFECT sons and daughters.
I love that Evan! Thankyou! We all have something like that, that we can afford to lose .
Indeed. Now doesn’t this hymn stanza make more sense?
It’s from Mary Baker Eddy’s “Mother’s Evening Prayer”
O make me glad for every scalding tear,
For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear
No ill, — since God is good, and loss is gain.
Diane, I love the correlation you made with “Mother’s Evening Prayer”. It is so profound. Thank you for sharing. You’ve given me much loveliness to contemplate today.
It always amazes me. The inspiration that come from this blog that opens our eyes to a new truth that blasts out new inspiring information that helps us all.. This is one of those days. Thanks everyone.
Thank you, Evan & fellow followers. You are all an inspiration and so encouraging. I look forward to the “reminder” to began each day with God or Mind this week. I like …“God is good and lose is gain.” MBE
Thank you, Evan!!
“It’s hard to stay depressed when you remember daily that life is a gift.” – Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Yes! As Thomas Merton said: “All mature spirituality is about letting go.” And as Meister Eckhart said: “The spiritual life has much more to do with subtraction than it does with addition.” Love this! Thanks so much, Evan. Blessings to All!
Thanks so much for this reminder. Like, Diane, the first thing I thought of when I saw the subject was the hymn with “loss is gain.” I have lost much matter based thinking, including fear, and gained peace of mind. Thank you God!!!
Love it! We can always turn things around to good! I now see all things as opportunities
for good! Thank you!
So true regarding Mrs. Eddy’s poem, Mother’s Evening Prayer. As the story in the Bible of the talents points out, he who trusts in God and invests with confidence gains much, those who waver kind of stand still, but are still hoping. Those who hide their talents seem to have nothing, but when the parable points out that even “that which he hath * is taken away, it too is a blessing! Because what he seems to possess is fear, mistrust, belief of lack, etc. so he too was blessed by the removal of those things. No man is ”unblessed” by his Maker, God.
Thank you, dear Evan, and all else who have written! As usual, a profound post, full of purity and clarity!
These are helping us all feel more freedom, less heaviness.
This is so true! And how light and lifted we become to let the false, but seemingly heaviness of things that are untrue about our character and nature fall away. Two pieces of inspiration that stood out to me after reading this post: The first was pointed out by Linda, we don’t gain anything by consistent prayer because we have already inherited ALL that God has to offer. We are already there. Already perfect, whole, complete, needing nothing. But we are learning to understand this about our true nature which can sometimes feel like we aren’t there yet, but we are! Yea! The second thing that came to me was from “Science and Health” pg 57 line 24, by Mary Baker Eddy in the chapter on marriage: ” The wintry blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affection, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to God…”
That wasn’t meant to be a reply to the previous post, but a stand alone post. Oh well.
Thank you Trista for your comment.
Thank you dear Evan, to let us ponder this wise proverb in your today’s SpiritView.
With regards to this proverb one truth sentence by MBEddy comes to my mind , namely from Science and Health p. 2 – line 15 – 16: ,,Prayer cannot change the Science of being, but it tends to bring us into harmony with it . ” It also is true that earnest prayer brings us closer to God. Just what Trista said. And I think that is very desirable!
Thank you Diana w.a. for mentionIng Mrs. Eddy’s poem ,,Mother’s Evening Prayer ” which is very suitable in respect of Evan’s today’s SpiritView, and the song is so comforting! Am very grateful for this healing blog of Evan and for all your inspiring comments! ! ☺
Just at this moment while I read all the wonderful comments I became very grateful for the awareness that we a l l are blessing each other with our boundless inspirational ideas to each SpiritView of Evan – thank you all so very much!