I. True Prayer
Our study of The Song of Prayer
In True Prayer, it is just a way to communicate with God. We are not questioning and we are not begging God. It’s not a slot machine or a Santa Claus wish list. We do not focus on what we want in the world, the illusions, for that keeps us in the realm of the ego. True Prayer is asking for the recognition that we know Who we are in Truth. There is no reason to beg for illusions for illusions shift and change. We don’t really know what we want. What we don’t realize is that our only need is peace. And peace we already have within us. Let us accept the gift that lies within us.
Now this doesn’t mean we cannot ask the Holy Spirit for specifics. But when it comes down to it as Jesus has taught us there is only one problem and one answer. The belief in separation is the problem and oneness in the answer. As I said, we can ask for specifics if that is where we are in our mind. As Jesus says here, “You cannot be asked to accept answers which are beyond the level of need that you can recognize?”
Yet ask yourself, what if you do not receive for which you earnestly prayed? Does that mean that God does not exist? He goes on to tell us that the real prayer is one of gratitude and love. We have everything we need within us and it is not the things of this world.
At the end he tells us that the secret to true prayer is forgetting the things you think you need. By praying for solutions of problems in the world, it means we are believing that the problem is real. To us, it seems pretty darn real, doesn’t it? It takes real trust to let go of our needs and place it into the Hands of God. Great trust and faith. Yet when we offer this gift, we are truly blessed.
Our Healing Circle meditation each month is for just this. Our meditation recordings are listed here: https://miraclesone.org/2015/07/healing-circle-meditations/
Join us for our email study of The Song of Prayer on our Healing Circle as we open to living in Prayer, Forgiveness and Healing – http://groups.google.com/d/forum/miraclesone-healingcircle
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I. True Prayer, under 1. Prayer in THE SONG OF PRAYER
- True Prayer
S-1.I.1. Prayer is a way offered by the Holy Spirit to reach God. 2 It is not merely a question or an entreaty. 3 It cannot succeed until you realize that it asks for nothing. 4 How else could it serve its purpose? 5 It is impossible to pray for idols and hope to reach God. 6 True prayer must avoid the pitfall of asking to entreat. 7 Ask, rather, to receive what is already given; to accept what is already there.
S-1.I.2. You have been told to ask the Holy Spirit for the answer to any specific problem, and that you will receive a specific answer if such is your need. 2 You have also been told that there is only one problem and one answer. 3 In prayer this is not contradictory. 4 There are decisions to make here, and they must be made whether they be illusions or not. 5 You cannot be asked to accept answers which are beyond the level of need that you can recognize. 6 Therefore, it is not the form of the question that matters, nor how it is asked. 7 The form of the answer, if given by God, will suit your need as you see it. 8 This is merely an echo of the reply of His Voice. 9 The real sound is always a song of thanksgiving and of Love.
S-1.I.3. You cannot, then, ask for the echo. 2 It is the song that is the gift. 3 Along with it come the overtones, the harmonics, the echoes, but these are secondary. 4 In true prayer you hear only the song. 5 All the rest is merely added. 6 You have sought first the Kingdom of Heaven, and all else has indeed been given you.
S-1.I.4. The secret of true prayer is to forget the things you think you need. 2 To ask for the specific is much the same as to look on sin and then forgive it. 3 Also in the same way, in prayer you overlook your specific needs as you see them, and let them go into God’s Hands. 4 There they become your gifts to Him, for they tell Him that you would have no gods before Him; no love but His. 5 What could His answer be but your remembrance of Him? 6 Can this be traded for a bit of trifling advice about a problem of an instant’s duration? 7 God answers only for eternity. 8 But still all little answers are contained in this.
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