The secret of true prayer is to forget the things you think you need. To ask for the specific is much the same as to look on sin and then forgive it. Also in the same way, in prayer you overlook your specific needs as you see them, and let them go into God’s Hands. There they become your gifts to Him, for they tell Him that you would have no gods before Him; no love but His. What could His answer be but your remembrance of Him? Can this be traded for a bit of trifling advice about a problem of an instant’s duration? God answers only for eternity. But still all little answers are contained in this.
Prayer is a stepping aside; a letting go, a quiet time of listening and loving. It should not be confused with supplication of any kind, because it is a way of remembering your holiness. Why should holiness entreat, being fully entitled to everything Love has to offer? And it is to Love you go in prayer. Prayer is an offering; a giving up of yourself to be at one with Love. There is nothing to ask because there is nothing left to want. That nothingness becomes the altar of God. It disappears in Him. (A Course in Miracles, S-1.I.4-5)
The ego, maker of the dream of separation, can only conceive of images or forms to which it gives meaning based on the belief in separation. Its dedication to separation makes it oblivious to the eternal oneness of Love. While we are believing in the dream, God provides answers in forms that we can understand. His answers are always a reflection of the oneness of Love. They lead us toward the recognition that only Love is real. His answers meet us where we believe we are, taking us gently and progressively toward awakening from the dream.
Our part in the process of awakening from the dream is to be willing to turn over to God the things we think we need in the world with willingness to see them as Love sees them. An example of a way to do this in our mind regarding a specific perceived need is to ask, “How would Love see this? How would Love respond to this?”
This is an expression of willingness to let Love’s reflection be revealed to us in the dream. We are promised that answers specific to our perceived need will be given us. They will always in some way reflect the reality of Love’s oneness. We do not have to understand how it works. We need only be willing to let go of what we think the need is. This is how we open our mind to receive specific guidance for what to think, do or say.
We must be willing to frequently step back from our perceptions and offer them to the Holy Spirit for His loving correction. The more consistently we do this with an open mind, the more peace we will experience in our lives. We will be shifting our attention from the ego mindset to the Love that is our true Self.
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