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January-March, 2016

Authentic Prayer — The Kind of Prayer That Works

by Rev. Joseph Wolfe, O.M.C.

I never really understood what genuine prayer really is. I used to think that to pray involved some measure of reverence — getting down on my knees and begging for some thing or some circumstance. Sometimes, though rarely, that kind of praying actually seemed to be effective, but most of the time I felt that I’d get better results beating on a dead horse. Usually for me prayer was a one way conversation, a plea or wish for something I thought I needed, something I wanted but didn’t have or a situation that I perceived would ‘make everything better’ if fulfilled.

Growing up, I observed many others praying in the same manner. From members of my family, to schoolmates and even entire church congregations, I saw what I perceived as the normal method of praying which was begging for stuff.

I went through many periods of time when I was downright angry and frustrated with praying. For the most part it didn’t seem to work. Many questions came up like who was I praying to and did “He” hear me or was “He” deliberately ignoring me? Did I do something to anger “Him” to the point that I was somehow unworthy of any answers to my prayers?

At one point I completely gave up on the idea of prayer and even renounced any belief in that God Guy (whoever He was.) I was convinced that the entire concept of investing any effort into prayer or God was a carefully strategized conspiracy designed by controlling powers to keep people in line.

Then one day God showed up and that was the day when everything changed. Eventually I found an integrity-filled discipline that taught me a way to forgive. Not as an act of absolution or letting a person or situation off the hook, but as a way of seeing past the smoke screens of deeply rooted convictions created by my own thoughts to a Power greater than any of these five very limited senses could possibly comprehend.

I learned that I am not a body but free and still as God created me. I learned that my natural state is pure spirit created in the likeness of God Itself. I discovered that I cannot die, that death is impossible, and God’s Will for me is only my perfect happiness. I learned that real prayer is a declaration of Gratitude for all of God’s gifts which are my inheritance. Real Peace, like real prayer comes, from the unmistakable conviction that everything I need I already have and that God’s guidance and help are always closer than my breath.

Recently I published a book entitled, Prayer For All Solutions; How To Pray. In it I share my take on authentic praying and how every question will be answered, every need fulfilled and every seeming lack supplied even before it is asked.

Excerpt from book:

How to Pray — Prayer for All Solutions

Dear God, I love You! You created me. I live in You and You in Me. Only my own limited, unconscious guilt and belief in this ego, this false personality’s individual identity keeps me confused.Thank You for everything You give me! Grant me the power to live in your Presence, and to accept Your unconditional Love as I learn to forgive. Allow me to remember that You are with me always with every breath I take, in every movement, in all thoughts, actions and feelings.

Please remind me constantly to view all others as my brothers, to realize that we are all One and to forgive them for they are One with me, joined in One Mind and also innocently caught in the ego’s identification with the world of illusion. Never let me forget that I am not this temporary body but Pure Spirit created in Your Likeness, as I continue to live every moment in the knowledge that You are with me always where I am; You God! The Alpha and Omega, the All and Everything, the Absolute.

Love, Light and the Peace of God,

Rev. Joe Wolfe, Spirit Light Outreach

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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