~ at Athens/Atlantis/9178 ~  | Entrance | Table of Contents | Purpose | Introduction | Daily Actions | Assignment One | Assignment Two, parts 1,2,3 | Assignment Two, part 4 | Assignment Three | Assignment Four, intro | Assignment Four, part 1 | | Recognizing Abuse | The Abusive Marriage | Assignment Four, part 2 | Assignment Five, introduction | Assignment Five | Assignment Six, intro | Assignment Six | Assignment Seven | Assignment Eight, part 1 | Assignment Eight, part 2 | Assignment Nine, 1 | Assignment Nine, 2 | Assignment Ten, 1 | Assignment Ten, 2 | 
Assignment Eleven ~
Any problem I have is a God-problem ~ 
Prayer is talking to God ~ Meditation is listening...
Part One ~
How often have you been praying and suddenly realized your mind had drifted off elsewhere, or perhaps, you fell asleep before you were finished? Do you ever have difficulty collecting your thoughts and desires, so that you really pray what you want to say? Do you ever wonder just what you should pray about, ask for, and expect? And are your prayers answered? These are some of the things we will be looking at in the next two assignments.
 There is really no right or wrong way to pray. Some people get so caught up in saying the right words or repeating a prayer they've been taught, that it loses all spiritual meaning for the individual. The most important thing to remember about prayer is that it is simply communicating with God, just as two close friends sit and talk with each other. God isn't interested in methodical prayers, repetitious prayers, or formulas of any kind. He wants to be our friend and our father. He wants our companionship, our trust, and our love. The more personal your prayers are, the closer you will feel to God. As a result, the more prayers will be answered, because you will have more trust in Him.
Throughout this course there have been several prayers introduced. If you remember, early in the study you were asked to notice and make note of the 3 P's: In the beginning especially, it isn't necessary that you believe anything, feel anything, or are even sincere in what you pray. Action is the key. Yet, if you have been painstaking about your development thus far, you undoubtably have gained new beliefs, new feelings, and have become sincere in your prayers. Action changes things ~ attitudes and emotions. Taking the action to say even memorized or repetitious prayers is the only beginning we need. I have also found that there will always be times throughout our lives when we just can't muster up any sincerity in our prayers, probably due to anger and self-pity, which usually masquarade as depression. During these times when we feel our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling, again we can fall back on memorized prayers, simply taking the actions and trusting the feelings to follow. I cannot emphasize enough that we cannot go on basing our actions and attitudes on our feelings. Emotions will fail us, for they are ever-changing.
I certainly don't want to give the impression that I am against any type of prayer. If memorized prayers work for you, then that's all that matters. Results are what we are looking for, not methods. God is not concerned with rituals or dogma, denomination or association. It's not about where you go nor how often, whether you pray aloud or in silence, whether you bow your head or lift your hands, whether you sing or chant, whether you play music or not, whether you dance or not, whether you say certain words or prayers... Jesus told us this one thing: Results are what matters, not how we go about achieving them. If you feel clean inside and have good things happen in your life; if you can see God working in your life, then what other assurance do you need that you are on the right track? And if you aren't experiencing these things, then what more proof do you need that your way isn't working? And prayer is the way we learn to have a relationship with God. Even memorized prayers can be highly meaningful, when we put ourselves into them and pray their words from the heart. One such prayer which I believe we all can benefit from is one written by a man, who for several hundred years now has been rated a saint. Yet, he first went through the emotional wringer. When he came out on the other side of his painful experiences, this prayer was his expression of what he had learned and hoped to learn:
"Lord, make me a channel of thy peace ~
If we will re-read this prayer many times over, concentrating on each word and phrase, letting it take on real meaning in our hearts and minds, it becomes a very effective prayer indeed. I believe this prayer sums up this entire course, showing us how to turn our lives around. Our job is to concern ourselves with carrying out God's desires, and it is God's business to be concerned with ours. It is a spiritual axiom that I cannot help someone else without also helping myself, and I cannot keep anything unless I give it away. The things I most desire to receive from someone are the very things I need to give. This prayer tells us just how to accomplish that.
A few things we should understand about prayer are that God doesn't need us to pray in order to know what we need or desire, and He doesn't need us to tell Him how or when or why to do these things. Prayer does change things, but it doesn't change God. We don't pray to convince God to see things our way and do what we want Him to. Prayer is meant to change us and our perception. Prayer is meant to bring us closer to God, that we may have more trust in Him. So, does God just refuse to do things for us if we don't trust Him enough or please Him enough? Remember that God isn't human, and one of the big mistakes people make is attributing human faults to God. People place expectations of themselves and others, people demand this or that for their time, attention, or services. This is not the case with God. He set up spiritual and physical laws in the beginning which were set in motion with creation. One such spiritual law is that we receive what we believe. God created us in His image, and that doesn't mean our physical bodies. It means that we are creators in this world. We think, we feel, we plan, we act, we react, and we create. We bring into existence the very things that we think about. Therefore, in order to have our prayers answered, we must believe what we are praying. If we ask God for something and then do not believe He will answer our prayer, then nothing will happen. We haven't changed. So, trust in God's love, power, and willingness to answer our prayers is built over time, through each experience we have of seeing Him work in our lives. Every little thing I can attribute to God's hand gives me a little more faith in Him. The more I believe in what I pray, the more prayers are answered. It seems most difficult to accomplish when I have strong emotional attachment to what I am praying about. In other words, the more I want it, the more difficult it is to just believe God will grant my request and stop thinking about it. So then I have to work on letting go of my strong desire and be willing to accept "whatever" happens. Again, prayer is not about changing God's mind nor convincing Him to answer my prayers, but is about changing me. We all have had plenty of experience praying, in whatever form, but how many of us take the time to listen? How many of us even believe that God still talks to people? Do we think that only crazy people hear God talking? God does still talk to us, but just not in a voice we can hear with our ears. God speaks to us through our thoughts and especially through that "gut feeling" as many call it. The further we progress down the spiritual path, the more in tune we become with this voice inside. We suddenly realize that God is doing things for us that we could not do for ourselves and that we intuitively know how to handle situations that used to cause us trouble. In part two, we are going to examine a form of meditation which has worked wonders in my life over the last 15 years. I wouldn't even attempt to do it any other way now, because the results have been phenomenal. However, there are certainly many other ways people meditate, and if you already have a way that works for you, then I wouldn't expect you to change. Yet, you may want to just read the section on meditation simply because it gives some clear-cut principles about listening to God and what to expect.
 Go To Part Two
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