What is Prayer? A mental/physical act, asking God/Goddess for spiritual or material things.
If God/Goddess is omnipotent, omnipresent, & omniscient, why do we need to pray? At the spiritual plane, we can bring change.
How do we know that God/Goddess will answer our prayers? Through our faith/belief and actual life experiences/lessons.
What hinders God/Goddess from answering our prayers? We are dictating the results as opposed to seeking spiritual strength/change.
When is it best to pray? When it is urgently needed, at any time, any circumstance or place.
Is faith crucial to prayer? Yes. It is the believer's responsibility to ask. It is God's/Goddess's responsibility to do in accordance with Divine Plan.
How should be pray? Either alone or in public, depending upon the situation or need. Public prayer is normally used to convey instruction on prayer. Private prayer is used to elicit God's spiritual support in a time of urgency. Public prayer is used to affect the hearers for some reason: educational, motivational, psychological effects, etc.
How do we know that our prayer request is the "will" of God/Goddess? By not dictating the outcome or results. We do not know what the Divine Plan is or what God's/Goddess's way may be in this or any situation.
Is it best to pray alone or in a group? Depends upon the purpose behind the prayer. An effective prayer is marked by urgency, sincerity, and intimacy.
How does prayer work? Prayer is an invocation of the divine as opposed to a convocation of the divine. In meditation, a convocation, we go up to the divine (raise/expand our consciousness). In prayer, we are invoking the divine, bringing the divine (God/Goddess) down to our plane. It is our responsibility to pray/ask while it is God's/Goddess's to do/accomplish in accordance with the divine plan, not ours.
What are the essential elements of prayer? "What" and "Why" are the essential elements. Prayer is an urgent, sincere, and intimate
conversation with the Divine on a specific, significant matter for an immediate and ultimate purpose. Effective prayer is marked by -
- an explicit request (spiritual or material in nature) on a significant matter (explicit request)
- an explanation as to why the request is being made (the reason)
- clarification of the request, its requirements and limitations (specificity)
- elucidation of the ultimate purpose of the prayer (motive) - to sanctify/glorify God
- persistence in the prayer over time (meaningful/heart felt repetition)
What are the different types of prayer? Petition for Self, Intercession for Others, Thanksgiving, Adoration, Praise, Decisions, forgiveness/Confession
What makes a prayer effective? Desperate need, urgency, earnestness, intensity, emotional involvement (from the heart).
What makes prayers ineffective? Feigned, insincere, ambiguous, too general, rote, ritual, dictating.
What is the difference between a prayers, thoughts, and an affirmations? None. In fact, everyone one of our thoughts is a mini-prayer. And every time we repeat a thought or a prayer, it acts as an affirmation. The end results is that we program ourselves to take action on the prayer/affirmation. We bring God down to this plane through ourselves.
What is meant by God/Goddess's will? Furthering the God/Goddess's glory by accomplishing the Divine's purpose/plan on earth which only God/Goddess knows. Therefore, we surrender to Divine will.
What are the conditions for prayer? Faith, abiding and prayer in God's name (to glorify God).
How does the praying process work? When we pray, we bring God down to us in a manner of speaking. In actuality, we are invoking or expanding our own God consciousness to answer a petition or intercede, to perform a "miracle". But we are the miracle, as God/Goddess expresses through us, through our doing, our actions. For example, most missionaries enter the field after a long period of praying to God to intercede and alleviate the pain, misery or suffering of others. They become God's answer to their own prayers. Their actions become God's response.
Like affirmations, through persistent prayer, we re-program ourselves, and as a result, through our actions, we become God's answer to our prayer. Thus, we are co-creators with God because we create our won reality with our thoughts, affirmations and prayers.
Does effective prayer require a certain attitude? Prayer is an action performed with an attitude of:
- privacy - "where we enter a closet" through either physical or emotional seclusion;
- humility - where we put our pride, sense of self-righteousness and ego aside;
- watchfulness - where we perform our prayer act in a conscious, mentally alert/vigilant manner
- worthiness - where the prayer act is performed without selfishness or as an act of vengeance or as a sham (acting)
See Spiritual Mind Treatment - affirmative prayers.
Prayer for Light and Love
