{"id":3127,"date":"2015-10-10T08:54:03","date_gmt":"2015-10-10T12:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/?p=3127"},"modified":"2015-10-08T08:54:34","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T12:54:34","slug":"prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2015\/10\/prayer.html","title":{"rendered":"Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Prayer is the faith that all things positive and good are possible to God. Fed by selfless love, faith grows into spiritual understanding and reveals remarkable experiences.<\/p>\n<p>God\u2019s work is done. We reflect the doing. Prayer embraces action, yet it\u2019s a mental exercise. It is not busy work reacting to our own personal desires or the world\u2019s demands, but a logical, spiritual, helpful, brave response to God\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<p>Thoughts are prayers. Desires are prayers. Sometimes these thoughts and desires are sketchy, but God can be trusted to clarify the prayers.<\/p>\n<p>We may desire more righteousness, but is it a desire to be right with God, or to be right in the eyes of human beings? The motives for prayer will be exposed. You can\u2019t hide ulterior motives.<\/p>\n<p>Healing prayer doesn\u2019t try to change God, because God is unchanging wisdom and Life. Prayer instead adapts us to wisdom and Life.<\/p>\n<p>God already knows what we need. We are never telling God something new. Asking God for something, no matter how passionate we sound, doesn\u2019t guarantee satisfaction. Humility is necessary. Not humiliation, but humility.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t acquire the habit of pleading with God, as though God is a human being with a brain that can be triggered into action. It is a mistake to think prayer coaxes the divine Being into reality. God\u2019s universe is alive and well\u2014synchronized with consciousness now. Spiritual being is intact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prayer is the faith that all things positive and good are possible to God. Fed by selfless love, faith grows into spiritual understanding and reveals remarkable experiences. God\u2019s work is done. We reflect the doing. Prayer embraces action, yet it\u2019s a mental exercise. It is not busy work reacting to our own personal desires or&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[929],"class_list":["post-3127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-science","tag-how-to-pray"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Prayer - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2015\/10\/prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prayer - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Prayer is the faith that all things positive and good are possible to God. Fed by selfless love, faith grows into spiritual understanding and reveals remarkable experiences. God\u2019s work is done. We reflect the doing. Prayer embraces action, yet it\u2019s a mental exercise. 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