It does not make a bit of difference to Spirit whether we pray or not. It does, however, make a big difference to us.
I thought about a story in which a family was celebrating a significant milestone with a special meal. The head of the family asked a five-year-old boy to give the prayer before dinner. The youngster began his prayer by thanking God for his Mom, Dad, and all his friends. He thanked God for his brother, his sister, his grandparents, as well as his aunts and uncles. He went on to give thanks for all the food they were about to eat. He even named the foods one by one - the seafood gumbo, cocktail sauce, the fruit salad, the grilled corn-on-the-cob, potatoes, pies, cakes, and so on.
Then, the boy paused. Everyone waited. And waited. And waited. After a long silence, the boy looked up at his mom and asked, “If I thank God for the broccoli, won’t God know I’m lying?”
The story helped remind me that our prayers don't affect God. The purpose of prayer is to raise our consciousness to demonstrate more (and never less) of our true selves. For effectual prayer, the Ancient Wisdom teachings use affirmations. An “affirmation” statement in the present tense reinforces the truth of our being or is something we want to see manifest in our life even if it is not showing up right now.
An example of a traditional affirmation is: "I am healthy." When we speak such an affirmation when going through a health challenge, I have discovered that we may hear an inner voice respond: "Yeah, right!" The reality is that many times we don't believe our affirmations and are merely trying to convince ourselves of something that, on some level, we don't believe.
The teachings suggest that even if we don't believe in an affirmation, we are to repeat our affirmations - over and over again - until we eventually believe them. There are times that this does work. But, have you ever said an affirmation like “I am prosperous, I am happy, I have enough,” and yet nothing changes?
We can add something to our affirmation work that will boost the effectiveness of our prayer work. We can supplement our affirmations with powerful questions. Our minds are constantly asking and seeking answers to questions. When we do, our minds go on a hunt to find the answers. To enhance the potency of our prayer work, we want to ask ourselves empowering questions. In the example of the affirmation in which we say "I am healthy," and the appearances suggest otherwise, we can ask, "Why am I healthy?” By simply asking, our mind will automatically go on a search for the answer.
A universal law found in the scriptural statement states, "Ask, and it shall be given to you." But, many people ask disempowering questions like, "How can this get any worse?" or "Why can't I do anything right?” Then, they are surprised when the all-powerful and all-knowing Universe gives them the answers to the questions that they asked!
Empowering questions cause our minds to focus on what we want and stop us from focusing on what we don’t want. When we add this element to an affirmative prayer, we turbo boost the great technology of prayer.
Try it and see what happens.
Peace and Blessings,
James