{"id":1507,"date":"2012-05-03T03:00:39","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T07:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lettinggo\/?p=1507"},"modified":"2012-04-26T18:57:54","modified_gmt":"2012-04-26T22:57:54","slug":"start-asking-life-for-something-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2012\/05\/start-asking-life-for-something-new.html","title":{"rendered":"Start Asking Life for Something New"},"content":{"rendered":"

If we receive from life what we\u2019re asking for, which is always the case, maybe it isn\u2019t so much that we\u2019re unable to ask for the right and rescuing realities as it may be that we don\u2019t know how<\/em> to request what we really need. Most of us think that prayer is primarily asking for something: \u201cOh please do this for me,\u201d or \u201cWould you just do that?\u201d or \u201cWhy won\u2019t you intervene?\u201d We think prayer is somehow connected to all these wishes centered, one way or another, around ourselves. But, what we\u2019re attempting to reveal is the spirit itself<\/em> inside of us that is first necessary in order to receive the request that we’ve asked for.<\/p>\n

The New Testament parable of the Prodigal Son tells of a new order of request. This powerful parable is about a young man who, as the story unfolds, originally lived in a pretty good place. All that he needed was provided. But, like many of us, he saw greener pastures outside of his given life and so he leaves it and eventually squanders everything his father had given to him.<\/p>\n

Then, one fateful morning, he awakens to find himself having slept in a pig sty and having only corn husks to eat. So he looks at himself and his surroundings and he says, \u201cI\u2019m an idiot. Why did I leave home?\u201d And at that moment he turns around and he goes back home.<\/p>\n

The story continues that his father sees him heading back home from this great distance and calls to his eldest son that his younger brother returns and that he\u2019s to go and kill the fatted calf. With this, the older brother becomes enraged, saying: \u201cI\u2019ve been with you all these years. I\u2019ve given you everything I have, and now this good-for-nothing comes home after squandering everything you gave him, and you\u2019re giving him the feast! Why?!\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the answer recorded in the New Testament that his father gives him is, in essence: \u201cBecause my son was dead, and now he has come back to life. He was lost and now he\u2019s found.\u201d But let me reveal to you the secret answer within this answer.<\/p>\n

What the father of the prodigal son has really said is: \u201cI\u2019m doing this (preparing a welcoming feast) for him because he asked for it<\/em>. By his actions your brother has requested my renewed love and loyalty. You\u2019ve been with me all along, so there was never any question of your fidelity. But your brother, he was gone. He was a lost to me, and his wish — along with his action of turning around<\/em> to come home — is a special request to be once again a part of this, my kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201clost\u201d son asked for his New Life by seeing that he was wrong and then deciding to return to his home. Incidentally, he did not know what was going to happen to him. And I\u2019ll tell you that it didn\u2019t matter to him because here\u2019s what was going through his mind as headed back home: \u201cI\u2019ve been a fool! All I possess is my own mistaken self.\u201d And he knew it. Which brings us to the key point: the understanding of his true condition<\/em> — and the subsequent action he took based on this knowledge — was a form of Higher Request.<\/p>\n

Until you understand how to ask for what you really<\/em> want, you will continue to ask in the ways that you think are appropriate. And you will continue to ask from a nature that doesn\u2019t know the difference between what\u2019s genuinely good for you and what\u2019s not. This is a huge question for all of us, because presently, the way we\u2019re constituted, our lives are nothing but a series of requests, whether they\u2019re done in a \u201cspiritual-religious\u201d sense or whether it\u2019s just out-and-out greed or ambition. We are always asking, and then not understanding, why it is for all the things we\u2019ve asked for, our lives still seem to be this proverbial leaf in the wind.<\/p>\n

As this (at first humiliating) new self-understanding grows in you, what happens is you naturally start asking life for something New. As slow as it may have been in coming, you\u2019re beginning to get the picture. You\u2019re now able to see, albeit \u201cthrough a glass darkly,\u201d what it really is that\u2019s missing from your life. And your new request reflects this realization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If we receive from life what we\u2019re asking for, which is always the case, maybe it isn\u2019t so much that we\u2019re unable to ask for the right and rescuing realities as it may be that we don\u2019t know how to request what we really need. Most of us think that prayer is primarily asking for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1104,1142,1151,430,1152,1149,1150],"class_list":["post-1507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meditation-prayer","tag-humiliation","tag-national-day-of-prayer","tag-new-testament","tag-praying","tag-prodigal-son","tag-through-a-glass-darkly","tag-what-we-ask-for"],"yoast_head":"\nStart Asking Life for Something New - Letting Go with Guy Finley<\/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\/lettinggo\/2012\/05\/start-asking-life-for-something-new.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Start Asking Life for Something New - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If we receive from life what we\u2019re asking for, which is always the case, maybe it isn\u2019t so much that we\u2019re unable to ask for the right and rescuing realities as it may be that we don\u2019t know how to request what we really need. 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His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues - relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom - and lead the way to a higher life. Finley is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery. He is the acclaimed author of \"The Secret of Letting Go\" and more than 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over two million copies in 26 languages worldwide. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations. Through Life of Learning Foundation, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 20 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. The Foundation's popular Key Lesson e-mails featuring inspirational quotes by Guy are read each week by a hundred thousand subscribers in 142 countries. Guy speaks four times each week on inner-life principles at Life of Learning Foundation's home in Merlin, Oregon. These meetings are ongoing and open to the public. For more information about Life of Learning Foundation, Guy Finley, and their life-changing messages, visit guyfinley.org. \"Guy Finley is...one of the leading experts at the forefront of human potential.\" -Nightingale Conant \"Guy Finley has helped millions live fuller, more peaceable lives.\" -Barnes and Noble","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.guyfinley.org","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","https:\/\/x.com\/guy_finley"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/author\/gfinley"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1507"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1524,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507\/revisions\/1524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}