For a while now, I’ve wanted to understand better the nature of prayer. For, as much as I pray in order to come closer to God and receive “answers” to my earthly concerns, I want my prayer to be meaningful. I’ve learned there are many forms of prayer that range from pleading, to seeking in silence, divine consciousness and the presence of God. Years ago, friends told me in more than one circumstance, “What you are seeking is already seeking you.” Isn’t this the same idea as God answers prayers? God could not be God and not respond to our needs. I loved learning that divine law is always adjusting and correcting in order to meet our every need as supply, health, protection, and care. (see PDF below: “God’s Law of Adjustment” by Adam H. Dickey)
Where it appears God is absent in relation to apparent discord and suffering in our own lives and in the world, we may grow in faith so that we learn to know and trust the word of God in every aspect of life. Once we experience knowing, we know. By this I mean, as an example, once I felt God’s love upon me in a moment of stillness, the idea of God being love became a fact for me. Today, I know God is love. Why? Because I experienced it in a way that goes beyond mental concepts. I now know and do not just rely on a concept.
Today I believe I have a better ability to live, trusting the word and the love of God because of this experience. Still, it is a mighty task in that it requires a continued effort to give over for correction, everything that is not loving. It does require the resolution of fear, attachments, and judgments we hold and value. In faith, we trust and take a receptive stance for good. Does it seem strange that we trust the sun will rise and set each day, but may have difficulty trusting God’s protection and care when these are His very words to us?
“A Course in Miracles” states in lesson 170, “The call of God is heard and answered” and by our response to His call, we are sustained by His love. This cannot be misunderstood or misinterpreted. I’m willing to believe: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Mathew 7:7-8). Similar statements are strewn throughout spiritual writings along with countless demonstrations of divine love providing for man in times of need. It is up to us to gain understanding and turn to divine law that is already operating to overcome deceptions in the world. Now, in watchfulness and persistence, we must receive as we have asked. Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, simply states it as, 'Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.”
A loving Father provides for His children.
It's been helpful for me to think of God as our loving Father who provides for us as our earthly mother or father would. My parents did so. God is our one Source. God is bountiful supply and wisdom Who determines the form as well as the how and when of what we receive. In that, God gives to all His children like as my mother gave my sister and me, each, a dime when we heard the music of the ice cream truck approaching. She would not give to one and not the other. My grandfather, similarly, would at times give us fifty cents and my brother, sister, two cousins and I would walk to the neighboring Tastee Freeze. The joy of giving and receiving was a part of every such occasion.
Here's a warm memory about my dad and one instance of how he provided for us. When I was as a teenager, my father built a raft for us at a lake just north of Milwaukee that we escaped to every weekend in summer. He secured wood, four large empty barrels, metal strapping, and a rubber ink blanket, used in the industry of offset printing. My dad was a lithographer at a large company and the blanket provided an excellent, weather resistant, protective covering over the wood, rough side up to prevent slipping. I watched him build the raft and with help, put it in the lake and tow it out to where we swam. He added reflectors on all sides to make it visible for boats at night. And of course, he added an anchor as well as a ladder so we could easily climb up on top.
Whether we playfully pushed each other off, climbed up only to dive back in, or just enjoyed lying out, it was terrific, and I know my dad felt joy in providing it. He loved us. We never asked him for a raft or complained we didn’t have one. He did it all! Our cousins, friends and others who swam at that same spot on the lake enjoyed it as well. People we knew and those we did not know, along with those we never knew used it, benefited all the same. And he maintained it as well; stored it on land over winter and launched it again in spring. In this one endeavor, my father gave us so much
By His nature, God’s care, and gifts to us are even greater. As did my father prepare and gather all needed materials for the raft, so does God prepare and continually adjust conditions -- all things that establish our healing and protection, provision, and the resolution of all conflict, worry and fear. When we are present, we do not dismiss or otherwise miss the answers to our prayers. God is consistent in His love and His giving, and this we can trust. Therefore, when we ask, let’s be vigilant and expect to receive His answer. My Course in Miracles teacher used to say, “You don’t place your order and then walk out of the diner”. We wait, expecting to receive. This is a growing edge for me, to ask and then in practice, to truly expect to receive. And in the process cultivate gratitude as a way of living.
Things are not as they appear.
Over a month ago I listened to a Christian Science talk that addressed the war in Ukraine in which the speaker shared that men who prayed the words of the 91st Psalm, reported bullets that should have been hitting them, missed. “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him. “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.” I’m learning that when we pray the words of the 91st Psalm, we are joining with the minds and faith of countless men and women who pray the same throughout the world.
While we have countless testimonies of God’s protection and care throughout time, I for one, am still, just learning of God’s ways. Referring to scripture is somewhat uncomfortable for me as scripture was not spoken in my home. For myself, I recognize I need not be embarrassed by my growing faith in the Christian God and must grow in comfort in speaking about God and His teaching. My relationship with God changed when in 1990 I walked into Unity Church of Christianity and later, The Church of Religious Science in 1995. Both are based in New Thought Christianity that provide concepts of God and spirituality that I could more readily embrace and that were foundational steppingstones for all I now believe.
Today, I am willing to grow in my understanding of God and as I do, I recognize that things are not as they appear to us in the physical world. Things in the world are merely an appearance because their source is not divine love. What God creates is eternal and unchangeable and is not one aspect or the other, in duality. We have no desire or need to correct what God creates in love, and what love creates has no opposite. What causes pain, suffering and death is not of God, and we can rejoice in claiming they can be changed, healed, and resolved. Life is spiritual and not of the physical. Of this, I am certain.
God’s answer to prayer lies beyond the veil of every error we now believe.
John 7:24 tells us to not judge by appearances but to judge only by righteousness -- the divine reality of being. This is a universal spiritual concept and is one that takes enormous practice, dedication and learning because it takes us outside of the teaching of this world and all we learned growing up as physical beings. It may require we question what we believe we are experiencing and all related thoughts, that would keep us stuck. In our questioning, we can go within and ask Holy Spirit to evaluate for us. Like in “The Matrix” we truly need a spiritually tailored download. We need a Guide.
In terms of prayer, we may see beyond apparent need and with confidence approach God in gratitude, seeking only to receive what He has prepared. Given that God's care is constant, we can question what looks like lack or need. Lack or need suggests God took a rest break that resulted in some need being unaddressed, as if there could be a hiccup in God’s loving care . It never happened and it never will. It’s not God’s nature to leave us for any moment in time. Our preconceptions…our interpretations are impediments we must surrender in order to know Him. This is a full-time job that leads us to freedom and greater opportunities to be of help.
In our willingness to see beyond things we allow the hand of God; the word of God to be made manifest. So, when we look upon war, a friend in grief, sick or in pain, even unto death; even unto routinely occurring, senseless deaths and deceptions in the world; we are encouraged to choose a loving response, an outstretched hand in all affairs of man. I’m ill-equipped to speak to the happenings in the world today. To acknowledge these occurrences are a part of life in this world but are not a part of our spiritual life in God, may seemingly offer little comfort in critical times. Even so, seeking understanding in God, is a pivotal point for receiving comfort and deliverance; for knowing what to do, how to be of help, and how we are to think on these things.
We have demonstrations that when we hold a higher ideal, the blind can see; the crippled walk; bullets miss intended targets; the sick recover, and what we perceived to be dead, may live. Disturbing appearances in the world require correction and that we see with the eyes of Christ. Each of us, according to our belief may practice, an ideal, a concept we cherish, in a committed and enduring manner, so suffering is given aid and may even be erased from our shared consciousness.
If you believe love is the answer, love.
If you believe love is the answer, love. Love yourself, family, friends, fellow Americans, foreigners, your enemies, including all as you are able. Think and speak only love.
If you believe surrender is the answer, surrender all you believe, value, hate or judge. Give it all over to the best of your ability. A higher Presence is waiting to receive all you will let go. What has value will remain as the rest is sorted and tossed aside.
If you believe prayer is the answer, pray as you believe to pray and pray without ceasing. Minimally, pray every time a thought or image of suffering occurs to you. Allow how you live to be your prayer.
If you believe practicing the presence is the answer, be in conscious contact with the divine. Be still and be actively in the presence of God and return to this practice throughout the day. Allow divine will to govern our lives, as in truth, it does.
It’s a time to practice ideals, love, and truth. “For such a time as this” (Esther 4:14), we must step up and demonstrate ideals, leaving all previous behaviors and thoughts that do not serve the goal that we collectively be healed and come to peace. People often like to say we are each a piece of the puzzle. Let’s each do our part and become a peaceful, radiant piece; a mind willing only to love and to see only love. In the fire and the presence of love, everything unlike love will burn away.
* See PDF below: "Gods Law of Adjustment" by Adam H Dickey. Christian Science Journal; January 1916. For me, this was a tremendous find.
