How To Pray Effectively

November 5th, 2014 | 19 comments
How To Pray Effectively

In order to pray effectively, you must first see yourself as a co-creator with the divine. So many people have been taught that they are helpless and that their only relationship with God is that of a beggar. Whether you hold that belief consciously or subconsciously, such a belief will dramatically influence how you perceive yourself in relationship to the infinite.

To begin with, it is important that you remember that you, too, are divine. If you separate yourself as one who is not divine, and then say that God is divine, then you are beginning your prayer with an erroneous assumption. God does not create anything unlike itself. God does not create anything that is not divine by nature. In other words, we are all made of the same thing: love and infinite worthiness.

When you acknowledge that you are as divine as the God that you pray to, you place yourself in the same ocean. The ocean of love and worthiness. Now you are positioned to make your request for help as a co-creator. The nature of prayer as a divine co-creator is vastly different from approaching prayer as a beggar. A beggar approaches prayer as though there is nothing that they can do. Such a person’s approach to prayer is dramatically one-sided. It says, “I can do nothing, and therefore God must do everything.” At first glance, this might sound very good and very humble. And indeed, if you are talking about your ego, this statement is absolutely 100% true.

But we are talking about a perspective where the ego has no say at all. It is the ego that wants you to see yourself as a helpless victim. It is the ego that provides you with the wondrous experience of utter separation from God. It is the ego that says you are not like God, you are not worthy of love, and judges you harshly as a helpless victim. And then it will finish you off by telling you that you deserve all of this mayhem in your life because you are fundamentally undeserving of God’s love. Does that sound like a good place from which to pray? Of course not. If you believe such nonsense from the ego, the distance between you and God becomes far too great.

When we say you are “like God”, we mean that you are of the same love. It means that you start from a basis of shared love. From here you can relax and be open. From here the fear of unworthiness is gone. It is very difficult to pray openly and with deep sincerity if you are a nervous wreck wondering if God deems you worthy of a solution to your problems.

The reason to function as a co-creator when praying for help is because God is by nature an active force and when you are positioned in this way, you also become an active force. The spark of these two energies ignites creative movement and solutions that are far more powerful. If you see yourself as a victim or helpless beggar, then God remains active but you are static. It is very difficult for the universe to aid a person who positions him or herself as immovable.

What are the benefits of praying as a co-creator with the divine? Firstly, in doing so you stop positioning yourself in opposition to God. You do not create an unnecessary polarity that God is good and you are the opposite, and therefore act as a beggar looking for mercy. Instead, you share the same love with that higher power and issues of worthiness no longer play into your prayers. Now you can be open and trusting, which leads to a natural state of humility. This is different from the false humility where you berate yourself as bad for making mistakes, etc… Beating yourself up is not humility. That is just the nasty ego trying to take you down by breaking your connection with God.

When you are open, trusting, and receptive you are naturally humble because there are no power struggles involved. There are no “deals” to be made with God. You begin by accepting God’s love. In fact, it could be said that the very definition of humility is a natural acceptance of God’s love where you cease punishing yourself with negative judgements. What this begets next is a willingness on your part. You show yourself to be open and willing to receive.

The second benefit in positioning yourself as a co-creator when you pray is that you show you are willing to be active in the solution. You are willing to work in partnership with the divine by evolving and expanding in order to manifest whatever it is you desire. You are willing to learn. You are willing to try something new. The fact that you are open and receptive in this frame of mind also shows that you are willing to demonstrate the courage to change. With all of these things in play, you give the universe so much more to work with. You indicate that you are flexible enough to embody whatever changes are necessary to experience the results that you seek.

It is always a wonderful thing to pray for others. But remember that their willingness and receptivity also play a role in the result. There are likely many things going on that you cannot see. So if it ever appears that such prayers are not answered, don’t blame yourself or indulge in a belief that this is a result of  so-called unworthiness on anyone’s part. It may be that the person or persons you are praying for are receiving exactly the level of upliftment that they are prepared to experience. Accept the fact that you have given of yourself in the best way you can by requesting divine assistance. Prayer for others is always an act of love.

If you have unconsciously spent your life praying to God for help, yet feel as though God’s response is extremely unreliable, then you may want to try repositioning yourself in this new way. If you can offer yourself as an open-minded, receptive co-creator with the universe and with God, then you greatly expand your possibilities for numerous resolutions. Remember that the starting key to all of this is to be willing to accept and acknowledge God’s love.