My Personal Thoughts on Prayer...

(Category: Journey Through Faith)

How many times have you prayed and felt it did not get answered?  For me, quite often I pray with no clear results.  Sometimes, though, you must understand (and this goes for me too) that the prayer was answered.  You miss it sometimes because the answer came not in the way you wanted or what you wanted.

A while back I was ill and found myself praying a lot.  Not praying for healing of my illness, but praying for other people.  One day, a prayer got answered in the most obvious way, akin to being hit in the back of the head with a baseball bat.

Now, I look back and wonder why did that prayer get answered and others seemingly don’t.  The answer is in the Bible.

Jesus often went off by himself to pray.  In the book of Matthew, he stated to go to you room and close the door to pray.

That particular night, I was in my room, completely relaxed and quite focused on the need.  I started praying.  Yes, the answer hit me like a baseball bat.

I have a theory, if you will, about praying. It is based on that moment described above and, in part, from the “7 Laws of the Mind”. I would suggest that you read the article, “Defeating the Power of Negativity in a Negative World”. That article goes into the “7 Laws of the Mind”.

We are only going to focus on three of the laws that I believe have a great effect on prayer.

Law of Relaxation:

Mental effort defeats itself; exactly the opposite of physical effort.  A relaxed, calm state of mind, is the only doorway to progress mentally.  Relaxation of thought is the only access to Infinite Intelligence.

Law of Forgiveness:

To access the Divine and connect the subconscious to the Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent Creator we must forgive everyone and anyone to clear the channel.  There can be no connection to the Divine mind where anger or resentment against a brother or sister, justified or not, exists.

Law of Substitution:

We cannot think about 2 things at the same time.  If a negative thought enters your mind ~ try to think about God instead.  If that is too big a reach at the time, use any fond memory or other pleasant thought.  Jesus, the Master Teacher, said, "Resist not evil" ~ meaning turn from it and think about something else instead.

Law of relaxation states to relax your thoughts to have access to God.  Law of Forgiveness states you need to forgive everyone to have a connection to God.  Jesus was big on being positive.  The law of substitution tells you to substitute a positive thought for a negative one.

All this jells together in a cohesive method of prayer.

In the book of Matthew, Jesus stated that when you pray, do not be like the “hypocrites”.  They love to pray in public places, looking for the glory of the act, not the need itself.

He, also, followed that with telling you to go to your quiet place, close the door and pray.

I’m not advocating that you stop praying the way you do, not at all! Every prayer is a positive thought to put into your garden spot of your mind.  Keep praying continually.

A bit of a side note:

In the book, Think and Grow Rich”, Napoleon Hill stated that your mind is like a garden spot of fertile soil.  Negative thoughts produce weeds and thorn bushes.  Positive thoughts produce beautiful flowers and plants.  Often our minds get cluttered with the negativity of the world.  That negativity grows weeds and thorn bushes in the garden spot of our minds.

Again, keep praying, it puts beautiful flowers and plants in the garden of your mind.

Has prayer been a mystery to you?  Do you think you have to do it “right”?

In a way prayer is a mystery to everyone.  We can’t make it into a formula where we put in the prayer and get what we want, like a giant bubble gum machine.

Prayer is not essentially about getting what we want from God, but is about asking God what he wants from us.  It is about establishing a relationship with God, about spending time with God.

Prayer is also one of the spiritual disciplines and the one on which so much else is founded.  We call it a “discipline” because prayer builds spiritual muscles in us.  Like running or lifting weights or working out builds physical muscles.

Prayer is meant to bring us closer to God, so that we may know God’s heart and act in concert with God’s will.

But, sometimes, you need to clear your mind.  Be sure you have forgiven all those that caused you any kind of grief.  Replace all negativity with positive thoughts.  Go to a private and quiet place.  Breathe... Believe without doubts... Then talk to God like you would your best friend.

Be prepared for an answer!  The answer may be what you wanted, not what you wanted or something better than you ever imagined.

To clear you mind of all negativity is most difficult, but definitely needed.

To forgive everyone that has caused you any kind of pain, grief, etc.  is much needed.  You are forgiving to relieve yourself, not to absolve the wrong doing.  You are forgiving to connect better with God.

Clear yourself of as much anxieties as you can.  Take time to relax, let the mind quiet down.  Perhaps read and re-read the scriptures below to help clear your mind.  Or, you can read any positive scripture that suits your needs.

All this will put you in better contact with the Holy Spirit and in touch with God.

Often, we pray as an afterthought.  Often, we pray from a thought that crossed our minds.  Often, we pray because we need to.  Often, we pray because we believe we have too.  But, sometimes, you need to go to your quiet place, close the door, and really connect to God.

Prayers get answer, even a quick short spur of the moment one.  But, when you relax, forgive, believe, breathe, be positive in your quiet place, you will have a conversation with God.  You will be surprised at how often God will communicate back to you.

It will come in various forms, such as a thought or a vivid dream.  One of mine came as a vivid dream.  It was definitely an inspiring and beautiful moment.

Keep in mind, one cannot achieve the above process without practice.  Please don’t assume, if you follow the thoughts stated here, you will connect with God the first time.

We will find our minds will drift around, breaking the quiet moment we were after.  We may still be holding on to something that we should have let go of.  Sometimes, we will simply not believe at that moment.

Keep working on perfecting your quiet time with God.  Work on training yourself in the suggestions above and one day the connection will be made.  It is quite beautiful, overwhelming and, possibly, a bit frightening, in a good way.

From the book “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young:

“Stop trying to work things out before their times have come.

“Accept the limitations of living one day at a time.

“When something comes to your attention ask Me whether or not it is part of today’s agenda.  If it isn’t, release it into My care and go on about today’s duties.

“When you follow this practice, there will be a beautiful simplicity about your life: ’a time for everything and everything in its time.’ Ecclesiastes 3:1”

The book also cited the verse, John 16:33 for the above note.

“Release it to my care.” This is letting our thoughts clear out the negativity and letting God take over.  If you do not have this book in your library, I highly recommend it.

Blessings all!  As the Apostle John stated, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”

Scriptures Referenced (New King James Version):

3 John 2,

2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

James 1: 5-6,

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

Matthew 6: 2, 5-6,

2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men.  Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward

5 And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites.  For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.  Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.  

Matthew 6: 14-15,

14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.  

Ephesians 4: 31-32,

31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.

32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.  

Romans 12: 9,

9 Let love be without hypocrisy.  Abhor what is evil.  Cling to what is good.  

Colossians 3: 2,

2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.  

Phillippians 4: 8,

8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things.  

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