EDITORIAL HOW AND FOR WHAT SHOULD ONE PRAY

“YOUR heavenly Father knoweth you have need of all these things. Therefore seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”

IN THE light of understanding that has come to many—that God knows best what each one needs, and is always supplying what is best at this time, it is natural to wonder and want to know just how one should pray, and for what, if for anything. We will try to answer that question and make it so plain that everyone who reads will understand.

We have plenty of evidence in the Bible that prayer is necessary. Jesus, our Lord and Teacher, in the sixth chapter of Matthew taught us how and when to pray, and even gave us a prayer that the world has used ever since. He even promised us that if we pray in a certain way what we ask for will be granted us. Listen to His promises:

“All things whatsoever ye shall ask, believing, ye shall receive.” —Mat. 21:22.

“What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” —Mark 11:24.

He also spent much time in prayer Himself, plainly showing to His disciples His need of it, and theirs likewise. He also told them of many things to pray for.

In the Lord’s Prayer undoubtedly is contained all that is needed for ordinary minds who require definite words to lift their thoughts to God. But for how many have this great Prayer become merely words from which the vital meaning long has vanished, because of the habit of saying them only with their minds—a habit learned from childhood? However, there is no doubt when this Prayer is uttered in fervent faith, that it is heard and blessings follow; for our Lord promised it.

But for those who fully realize that “the Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him,” as Jesus stated, and who would know just how to pray and how to get the true efficacy of prayer, we give the following suggestions:

Acknowledging that God as our Loving Father always knows our needs, and that He therefore must be intending to supply them, the only reason then that He does not supply them—like He does the air we breathe—must be because of our inability to accept the supply. And why are we unable to accept it? Because of our fear and unbelief that He will give it, which disturbs our minds and clogs their channels so that we cannot hear what He would have us do. Think for a moment until you see how true this is.

But that being so, and it being the curse of almost all men, and has been from the beginning, how can we overcome that fear and unbelief, you ask?

There is only one way, and that is to lift our minds away from self and its needs, from the things in this world, to God and His world. And that Jesus showed us how to do in the Prayer He gave us, having us turn to God, in the words, “Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed is Thy Name. Let Thy Kingdom come and Thy Will be done upon earth even as in Heaven.”

To one who really turns his thoughts to God, and truly reveres His Name, trying to see His Kingdom coming and His Will being done in his own life and world, can you not see that at once opens his mind to God and to His Kingdom? For where one’s thoughts are, there one actually is in consciousness. Try to get the full meaning of these last words.

Let us follow up this wonderful truth until it is made wholly clear.

Remember, as shown in last month’s Editorial, all we are is consciousness, and there is only One Consciousness, which we call God. Then all the consciousness we have is God, and all that God is and has is ours, because He is we, and we are He. Then we should always be wide open to all the blessings of His Consciousness.

But do our minds know this or even believe it? We say we believe it; but not one in ten million can prove it. Why? Because we cannot get out of our minds our fear and our belief of being separate from Him.

Then the true meaning and purpose of Prayer must be to think such thoughts, express such feelings, and voice the words that lift us to God and entirely away from self and its wrong beliefs; and the more truly we accomplish this, the surer are we open to His Consciousness, the Source of All Good, and by our clear-cut desires draw forth from It into manifestation whatever we need at the moment.

Remember the Law,—“It is what we think and believe is so, that outmanifests.” Then the only efficacious prayer must be when we think the thoughts, express the feelings, and voice the words that turn us within and most surely enable us to know the truth, that God is All in all—is All that we are; that All then is Good and Perfect—no matter what appears; that there is no lack or limitation anywhere or in anything; and that our every need is supplied now. Just to the extent that we truly know this, do we find our Prayer answered.

Of course there are many ways, many different thoughts, feelings and words, that may be called into expression to convince our minds of the truth that God alone IS and that we are not separate from Him. The words we have used above are simple and fundamental. You can use any and all words that will get your mind to believe so that you can act on that truth. When your mind actually accepts it as so, lets go, and you go about your business in a serene knowing that it is all finished—the manifestation is established in consciousness, and must outmanifest.

Now we will consider the creative nature of prayer. Few realize that by true prayer, or conscious voicing of our need, and by knowing the truth that God thus but brings us through such need to Him, when our love and trust in Him grow strong enough, it opens wide the door of our minds so that the need can be and is supplied—even as air rushes into a vacuum when the stopper is removed.

In other words, when by prayer we build in our minds a clear picture of our need being supplied (believing that we will receive), our love and trust in God becomes the power that brings forth fulfillment from the invisible into the visible.

Yes, by such prayer we actually create thought-forms and fill them with the substance of our Faith, so that they must outmanifest. It is but the fulfillment of the law,—“What we think and believe is so, outmanifests.”

Study these words, dear reader, until all of their wondrous meaning unfolds, and then try to make your future prayers fit the great truth you find therein.

But it all hinges on your believing. So it is your belief that you must work with, must build steadily and surely out of your growing love and trust in God.

And how can you make that love and trust grow more positive and active? You have the way clearly pointed on the back cover of this Magazine, and there is nothing more sure than what will result, if you will do just what is shown:

“Wait upon the Lord every moment of the day, doing everything you do solely to please Him, concerned not at all about results, about the outer world, or about tomorrow, but with mind and heart ever fixed on Him in a simple, childlike, perfect love and trust, just KNOW that He will take care of everything else.”

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