On Prayer
What is prayer? How should I pray? What good does it do? How does it work? These are questions which many human beings ask, whether they are excarnate or incarnate. We would like to try to give you a little better idea of prayer, but the column is too short for much.
Prayer is communication with God. Communication is always a two-way thing. So true prayer includes both talking and listening. The last is very important. Most incarnates, as they are taught their prayers as children or by their churches, are never taught to listen, only to talk. Then prayers must be answered very indirectly and that should not be necessary.
Most people today are quite capable of receiving a more direct answer to their prayers if they will but learn how to: First, talk properly with God and second, take the time to listen. The growth of the practice of meditation is a very good sign as this provides one of the easier times to listen to God or His agents for their direct answers to your prayers. Any time of quiet will do, however. Answers may still come indirectly also.
But let us go back to the best way to talk to God. Many people have prayers which they say by rote memory. These can be very good if the person actually thinks about what is being said and honestly agrees with the meaning. Even simple rote recitation of the words can be much better than nothing because it shows the person’s intentions and where the loyalty is placed even if, through ignorance, the best procedures are not being followed.
Be assured, that sometime, somewhere, in this lifetime or another, your prayer WILL be answered. Sometimes the answer is ‘No”, but remember the fairy tale of King Midas: Having been granted a wish, he greedily asks that everything he touches shall turn to gold!
That sounds marvelous, doesn't it? After all with sufficient gold, you could buy anything else you might want! But the poor king finds that even his food and his precious daughter turn to gold! We too would be wise to think through the long-range consequences of our desires.
Next, when we are praying for others it is important that we not try to manage them or take away their freedom of action. Even prayers for healing can interfere with a person’s own desires. It is best to surround a person with the God love and light which is energy that the person is left free to accept or reject and to apply in any manner he desires.
You would probably find it very interesting to keep a prayer notebook, noting the date of a request and the date of its answer. There will be a recognizable answer more often than you might expect.
Ramsingh 1982