When I Pray

Namaste

After hearing a Bible lesson all about miracles in her Sunday school class, a little girl went to her Sunday school teacher and said, "In my house, when handwriting appears on the wall, it's not a miracle; it's the work of my little brother."

A little boy was kneeling beside his bed with his mother and grandmother softly saying his prayers, "Dear God, please bless Mummy and Daddy and Grandma and all the family and please give me a good night's sleep." Then he looked up and shouted, "And don't forget to give me a bicycle for my birthday!"

His Mummy replied "There is no need to shout like that. "God isn't deaf."

The little boy then quietly answered, "No, but Grandma is."

Many people often people pray just like that little boy, shouting out to a god they believe is deaf, or at the very least doesn’t listen to what they are saying, because they aren’t worthy or believe that they are being punished for some unknown reason. So, they plead and beg to a God out there, to get God to change his mind and trying to gain his favor, perhaps over an adversary or opponent. Have you ever done that, pleaded and begged God to grant you some favor?

I remember the last time I consciously did that. I was 12 years old, and my team was playing for the Texas Pee Wee League State championship. Imagine that! I so desperately wanted to win that game, I prayed and I prayed before the game that we win. Being raised Catholic I only knew two prayers: the Our Father and the Hail Mary. I repeated them over and over again just as fast as I could, sending them out to that god beyond the clouds.

I remember that night it was pouring down raining, and as our team fell behind I prayed harder and harder and faster and faster.

No, prayer doesn’t work that way, although there are times it might appear to. It is similar to the Bob Barker, and the “Let’s Make A Deal” approach to prayer! You know, when you say, “dear God I promise to go to church and be Good, if you do this for me.” Let’s spin the wheel and make a deal. Prayer really doesn’t work that way.

Prayer is not about changing outer circumstances and conditions, it is about making an inner connection. It is about turning our focus within and aligning ourselves with the Spirit in us, where we are able to see to the Truth of a situation. We are then empowered by new or a higher understanding; perhaps the answer takes the form of a different action, an inspired approach, an insight or just simply the realization of our oneness with the Sacred Energy flowing about us, knowing that the action we are taking is on target.

Jesus said, “Whenever you pray, go into your inner chamber, shut the door and pray to your Father, who hears in the secret.” So when I pray, I feel my heart go deeper, and deeper into my inner chamber, where all there is, is me and God. That’s why I could not get that song “When I pray,” out of my head when I heard it sung two weeks ago by friend Rev. Ross Campbell at the uni-teen retreat. Because when I pray, I feel my heart go deeper! Can you affirm that with me? When I pray I feel my heart go deeper.

Unity really has a different approach to prayer than the rest of Christianity. We are not praying to a God out there beyond the clouds, but to a Living Presence, in here, and all about us. It is as King David wrote in the 139^th Psalm, “O’ Lord, you have searched in me and know me, you know when I sit down and when I rise up…you hem me in, you are behind me, before me, above, beneath me… Such knowledge is to wonderful for me, so high I can not understand it… Where can I go to flee from your Presence? If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the furthest limits of the sea, there you shall be to lead me and hold me fast.”

When you pray can you feel the Sacred Spirit’s Presence holding you fast? Can you feel your heart, your soul, your love go deeper and deeper?

When I started attending Unity some twenty-three years ago, I had no idea how to pray. I did know that the way I was taught to pray didn’t work for me: to repeat words that didn’t have any meaning for me, over and over again in a rote fashion, with out power or connection and sending them off to a distant God. I knew prayer didn’t work that way.

So when I began taking classes at Unity School as a part of the Spiritual Education and Enrichment program, I took a class called Life of Prayer and I took it every time I went there, and I would listen to what the instructor would say. Every time it was a different instructor and they all had different approaches, except for the God to whom they prayed, which was deep down within them, within me and within you. The classes were not about sending prayers out there, but were methods of directing and aligning our thoughts and words to the Sacred Presence that exists in us.

Please affirm with me, “When I Pray, I feel my heart go deeper!”

Of course the skeptic in me, questioned and put all their theories about prayer and all their methods to test, to see if they would really worked. And you know what happened? It changed my life, the way I think and how I relate to life itself. Now, when I pray I feel my heart go deeper and deeper into the Living Essence, into the Sacred Energy that surrounds and enfolds us.

This Saturday at 10 am Carl Hicks, a Licensed Unity Teacher, who recently started attending our church will teach a 4-week series of classes on Life of Prayer. I hope you consider joining him, I know this particularly class has had profound impact on me, and my spiritual journey.

Charles Fillmore, the co-founder of Unity said, “Prayer is the most highly accelerated mind action known. It steps up mental action until man synchronizes with the Christ Mind.” Say What?

Yes we have all been taught prayer can be the most powerful force in the universe. But what makes it so, is our ability to step up the action of our mind so that it can come into alignment with the Christ Mind. The Christ Mind is the invisible Living Matrix of Sacred Energy, It is the wisdom, the love, the peace, the understanding that is God. It surrounds, enfolds and permeates ever cell of our being. This is what we in Unity believe Jesus meant when he said, “know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

The Father, the Creative Force of Universe, is this Living Matrix in which we are all immersed within. It is the breath of life, the Living Spirit, which fills us. Jesus, through his unique method of prayer, came to realize this and saw no difference between himself and this Living Spirit. He said, “Go into your inner room and pray” allowing your heart to go deeper into the Sacred Presence, and discover It for yourself.

A few years back there was a movie called "Tad."  It was about Tad Lincoln.  Many times during the Civil War Abraham Lincoln would become totally fatigued.  His staff worried about him on many occasions, for it seemed as if he was going to fall apart.  But just before he would reach that critical point, he would go upstairs to his room and talk to God as you would talk to your a best friend who was right there.  He would say, "God, I don't know how to save this country.  I need Your help.  If You want this country to survive, You are going to have to be the One who does it, I've done all I can do."

The staff watched him go upstairs tremendously fatigued, and on the verge of collapse.  Then, a few minutes later, watch him come down stairs re-charged with new vitality that showed on his face.  He went upstairs, plugged into God, and God plugged into him. A power transfer took place. Miracles took place.

When I pray I feel my heart go deeper!

When you were a child did you have toy airplane that was powered by a rubber band. You’d turn the propeller, winding that rubber band tighter and tighter. It was an amusing toy, but it's not so amusing seeing people being twisted, tight, under pressure ready to snap! Something has to give. Something has to release that buildup of pressure and stress inside of us. Or we look and feel like Abraham Lincoln did, fatigue and beaten down by troubles. And our troubles seem to winding us tighter and tighter each day. What will release this building pressure? Plugging and drawing upon the Source of ever-renewing life and energy by taking the time for a soothing, relaxing prayer to feel yourself going deeper and deeper.

Unity believes there 5 overall steps in a practice of prayer. These steps are listed in the booklet titled a Survival Guide for the Soul, which will be handed out at the end of service. Prayer in Unity, as I have said several times, is connecting with God, it is going deeper and deeper. Or as the Lord’s Prayer implies hallowing out a space within our mind and heart so we can commune with God and heighten our awareness of Spirit’s Presence.

The first of these five – steps is to relax. To take a deep breath in knowing that you are surrounded and enfolded by the One Presence, and that with each breath you take It fills your lungs, and then flows through out your body. As your awareness of Spirit’s Presence washes over you, you can allow your body to relax within It. Let go of whatever you have on your mind; let go of your concerns and worries, and just be aware of the One Presence filling your being.

As you close your eyes and release thoughts about the outer world, begin to concentrate on God’s Presence. Focusing the mind on a single thought or idea like: “Be Still and Know I AM God;” or “God is Spirit, that Spirit fill me now;” or as we do to begin our prayer time, “God is, I am.” Find a mantra that resonates with your soul and repeat it over and over again, until it becomes your only thought.

Then focus on your breathe and allow your self to find that perfect rhythm that is you, meditate on it, allow it to move in you so that you can go deeper into the Divine.

Then something will shift in you. I call it a trap door opening up, that kind drops you into an all-encompassing field of energy. You suddenly become aware that you are One with God, that this Sacred Energy permeates every cell of your being. This knowing, this realization is what we in Unity call the Silence, a silent soul communion with the Infinite. In this state, we simply listen for the heartbeat of God, in It come all the answers we search for.

As you emerge from this state of awareness, allow the feelings of gratitude, thanksgiving and appreciation to sweep over you. Let your heart’s joyous response be for the experience of that oneness with the Infinite. Give thanks for that opportunity to be totally in the moment, aware of the source of life and all goodness. Give thanks for all the blessings that are about to flow forth, and be ready to receive.

Whenever you pray use simple, natural words that have meaning to you. You don’t have to use stereotyped pious phrases that no one has a clue as to what they really mean. Talk in a way and develop phrases that move in your soul. And since Jesus said, “God knows our thoughts and needs before we speak of them,” you might think we would first strive to align our thoughts and words with the Holy Spirit and what It might be seeking to express through us before we begin asking God for the laundry list stuff that we want HIM to take carry of. This is why Unity has moved to this 5-step method of prayer, so that we can focus on the Holy Spirit’s Presence.

Spend five to ten minutes each morning, and or evening in this type of prayer and then expand it as you can. Or if you can make time, do what the follows of Islam do, and pray five times a day: in the morning, just before lunch, mid-afternoon, just before dinner and then just before they go to sleep. That is one of the best spiritual disciplines I’ve ever heard of to help you focus on God’s Presence.

So our five steps to help us focus on God’s Presence, are to relax into It, concentrate and meditate on It, then realization your Oneness with the Infinite and giving thanks for the moment to be in It. This is actually the golden key that author Emmett Fox wrote the pamphlet "The Golden Key". Think about God instead of the problem. When you think about God, everything begins to change in a miraculous, wondrous way.

The 5-step prayer process and the awareness that prayer can lead you into a deeper and deeper feeling of Spirit’s Presence can be incredible tools to add to your Survival Guide for the Soul. What do you have in yours? That is what Yvonne and I are going to discussing over the next month. The Survival guide for the soul can be an all in one manual for the spiritual journey you have embarked on it will lead to the place your soul calls home. Remember that when you prayer, to relax, concentrate, meditate, realize and give thanksgiving, as you feel your heart, soul and love go deeper and deeper into Oneness with the Divine. I know that is the place my soul calls home.

Resources for this Lesson:

• The Survival Guide for the Soul, published by Unity House and Unity Institute Unity Village Mo.
• The Song, “When I Pray,” by Daniel Nahmod www.danielnahmod.com
• The Revealing Word, Charles Fillmore, Unity House, Unity Village Mo.
• Teach Us to Prayer, by Charles Fillmore, Unity House, Unity Village MO.
• The Golden Key, by Emmet Fox, published by Unity House, Unity Village Mo.
• Sermon Notes by Christopher Chenowethe, www.positivechristianity.org
• The Holy Bible, NRSV

When we lost, I was heart broken. I didn’t understand why God didn’t hear my prayers. Were the kids on that other team some how more worthy? Why did God let them win? As result, I believed prayer didn’t work and I didn’t pray again for many years. I became a skeptic of prayer and of church.