How to Pray

Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to Decide on Joy, a podcast coming to you from Harmony Spiritual Center in Fort Worth, Texas. My name is Jim Kovalt. And my name is Rev. Dr. P. J. Stanley. Welcome. Thank you for being here. On this podcast we talk about basic sort of new thought principles and how they work in daily life and how they can help you co create your own best life. Yes. Yes. That's what they were talking about. prayer. And the, the first thing that comes to mind is a prayer in the new thought context might be a different thing from what you might be used to if you were coming from a, like, traditional Protestant or Catholic or whatever background or Other religions as well. Correct. Yeah, exactly. And so I think that The first thing does to talk about is how we how we how we see God We don't see God as a And don't necessarily have to call it God. We can call it God or Spirit, and we call it Spirit actually, and we call it God. We call it a number of things. I, I don't, I think a rose by any other name is still a rose. It doesn't matter what you call it. Whatever you're comfortable with, but we, we, We don't believe in a God or a spirit out there outside of us, or so far away in the sky somewhere. We think it's very personal and very close to us. That's how we, we see it. And we our idea of what prayer is is communing with that, that what we call spirit. And it's the recognition that of this Spirit's Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence. Meaning, Omniscience, it's all knowing power in your life, and in life in general. It's Omnipotence, it's all, it's power, the power that it has in all, in all of our lives, in everything. And it's Omnipresence, it's everywhere, present. present. So there's nowhere. We don't believe that you can be or go or do and God isn't there. God is everywhere. And so that is the realization that we have. And also in addition, when we talk about prayer and just our thinking of God, we are also united with that spirit. So it's not outside of us. We are united and one with that spirit. And sometimes New thought prayers can sound more like what you might think of as an affirmation. Yeah, true, true. There's a whole process, and I call it when we pray, it's something, just a little acronym. To remember what we're doing when we pray, and it's called RUCATT, is how you say it. It's R U C A T T. And the R stands for that we just simply recognize, what I just said earlier, that there is this one power that's everything and that we are you. Rue, you, united with that. So recognize that there's a power greater than ourselves, that we are one with that, that we are united. And when we pray, we're making a choice. So the C for cat is choose. What is it that you're praying for? What is it that you want? Health, wealth relationship, what is it you're, you're, you're asking for? So you choose, you recognize, you unite, you choose. And once you choose it, there's no begging or whatever, you just state it. Amen. What is it you want? And then you accept it. You would think that you wouldn't have to do that because you're asking for something that you want, but sometimes we don't feel like we deserve what we're asking for. So we really have to ask for something and then accept that it's possible that it's going to come into our lives. Once we do that, we just give thanks as if it's already done, because it is. Because the moment you pray for it, it's done. You give thanks, and it's a 2T, so it's TT. Give thanks. and trust that it's done. You don't have to revisit it. It's done. The thing is, and I'll come to this, I was going to come to this later, but I'll go ahead since I'm here now people ask, well, what happens if you pray again, you know, for the same thing? Nothing happens. You, you, you, the moment you pray for it, it's done. If you feel Did you want to speak with God about it again? There's no punishment. There's no penalty. I said, well since you didn't trust me, I'm not going to. It doesn't negate the first one. It doesn't negate the first one. It's just, it's for your comfort level. You do whatever you want to do. It's for your comfort level. It doesn't change the prayer. Yeah. So why do we pray? So, you know, The, the thing that we're here about when we talk about decide on joy is about having the best life that you can possibly have. And we, and Spirit is involved in that. So we pray for guidance, because sometimes we're confused about what it, what's even the best thing for us. You know, is it, is it, and sometimes we don't get something like when you ask for a job and we think well, I want this promotion. You don't get it. But maybe that's not really, it wasn't necessarily that promotion that really was happening. What you needed was happening. There's something greater for you. And so you don't get that because, because spirit is, is, is seeing greater, is seeing what you're capable of doing. And so so we, so we pray for guidance, to ask what, what is, what's, and this is my favorite thing to say, is what's mine to do now? What is mine to do? I don't always know that. Sometimes we're, we're ill and we're praying for healing. But this is all kinds of things that, that, that our minds cannot comprehend, that we reach out to something that's omniscient, that knows everything, and that is on your side to ask for assistance in our lives. Mm hmm. Particularly in relationships. Let me go back to that. Oh! Yeah. I pray all the time about relationships with my kids, my, you know, my family, friends, all the time. Just, and, and not about me getting my way, I actually ask for clarity. What's happening here? Mm hmm. And what's mine to do? Mm so, so does God answer some prayers of not others or is he's, yeah. That's a question that, that people have all the time. You know, it's like, well, that you didn't, that prayer didn't get answered. Or that person over there, or, you know, and the, the whole favorite thing, you know, why are there wars over here and not over, not, not over there and not over here. First of all, all prayers are answered. Okay, all prayers are answered. Here's the thing, and I'm going to refer to the Bible on this one. Mark 24 says this, and I'm just going to say exactly what it says from the new international version. That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, And be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he has said shall come to pass, he shall have whatever he saith. So it's not about the power of God, it's about whether you believe it's actually possible. Whether you believe, you're praying for something and you haven't, and it's not that you believe that you can do it, that you believe that God will do it for you. And that, and so, so, so the whole thing is to pray with belief in God. Not, not, not believe that you're good enough for it because you already are. Not believing that, oh, if I hold my mouth right, if I, you know, if I have enough, you know what I mean? There's all these little conditions that we put on prayer. But if you know. That God is omniscient on, present, everywhere, present and loves you, and all that you have to do is just pray and let it go. It's going to be done. Now, it may not be done in the time that you want it to be done. There's some things, and it may not show up the way you think it's supposed to show up. It shows up the way it shows up, but there answer there. What, what is the extent of what can you believe is possible? Yeah. Exactly. And I think that comes back to, and that's part of, as we're here Harmony Spiritual Center, and we are teachings, we're a teaching center, and what you can believe is possible has to do with your background, it has to do with how you were raised, it has to do with what you were told, that you were worth. And a lot of things come back to whether we think we're worthy of something or not. Whether we are worthy of a good relationship. Whether we whether, this, this is a good one that wanting more money because money is evil. Money is the root of all, everybody uses that. The, the money, money is the root of all evil. But that's not actually what it says. It says the love of money. Money is the root of all evil, not money itself, because money makes the world go round. To me, money is love in action. What do you do when you have money? If you ask someone, what would you do if you won the lottery? I'm asking you guys out there, if you won the lottery, what is the thing that you say? What is the thing that you say, Jim, if you, if you won the lottery, what's the thing that you would do if you with the money that you got? Yeah, I know, all the things that you would buy for yourself and pay off bills, but after that, what would you do? I'd give a lot of it away. Exactly. To the people that you love. Helping your family, you know, if your mom was still around, helping her, whoever. Helping those that you love. That's so, to me, money is love in action. That's, that's what it is. So, so sometimes you, you don't believe it's possible because you don't think you're worthy of it. That you, that, that it's wrong to want something and it is not. Desire is not wrong. It actually shows you what's there for you and what, what's next for you. This is a question that you've given me here and I'm not sure, but when is it answered? Yeah. So, so that goes back to the question about who, who, you know, does it, does he answer for you and does he answer for someone else and, or he, he, she, whatever you want to call that. Does God answer, the spirit answer? And when is it answered? It's answered when it's answered because, and it sounds funny to say that, because timing is everything. Right? Timing is everything and you don't really know what the timing is. So let's just say this so I'm writing a book, right? And how long have I been saying that? Like for a year now? For a year. It's written, but it's taken me a while. I also had, was talking about working with my doctor, how long does it take? And I prayed about that. I asked about it. But it takes, things have to come around to me. Information, people that are going to help me, all that has to come into place before it's actually physically here. So, because you prayed for it, it's on the way. And everything that you need to know to get it done and to keep it going is coming to you. So, What you want to do is recognize that the prayer is being answered as you're seeing things that help you get it done. As things show up in your life, recognize it. Oh, this is going to help me do that. Oh, this is going to help me with that. So, it's not like a, it's not like a magic wand. It's not like a genie. Like you say, oh, I want a doctor. Boop! There you go. It's not that. It's not that. Well done. It's not that. That's all the prayer is. So, it's, it's on the way. It's on the way. And to, for me, I just want to say this, when you pray, know that it's already done now. It's done now. There is no time. Here's another thing. There is no time in spirit. We have, we've created time so that we would know when to be some place and all that. But there actually is no time. Time is irrelevant to spirit. It's all the same time, right, for spirit. So if he does it for us in 10 days, he's done it right, or he, she, it has done it already. And it just takes 10 days to show it physically And what happens if others probably not That sort of example, but if the sort of thing where like if you indeed you said what's mine to do? Yeah And what happens if you don't listen to the answer? Yeah, because sometimes you don't recognize it Sometimes you don't recognize that's the answer because it didn't come the way you thought it was going to come I'm trying to get an example. Oh, whoa So, I've talked about this a lot. I had a wonderful adventure overseas, over in Asia, for 11 years. 11 years. Do you know how long it took me to go? And I was asked to go several, 25 years. Because in my mind, It was a war torn country. They hate Vietnam. They hate us. We were, we, we fought them. We did not fight them. We fought the North, with the South. So we were friends with half the country. Right? And, and so I fought that. So that, that was I'm just trying to think, what, so that was something that I, that was, once I went, my whole world was opened up. The things that I love to do, which is to meet people, to travel, all of those things, I denied myself, and it was there and saying, let's go, let's go, let's go, and I kept saying no. I kept saying no, and once I got there, I thought, oh my God, this is what you've been telling me all this time? Right. And so how do we know when, when, when it has been answered, can we confirm that answer? Yeah. And I, and I guess you just have to know, you have to, you, you, we keep revisiting the question, the, the, the answer, the choice that we made. Like I'm going to go back to the book. I said, you know, I want to write a book cause I want to do some things. I want to leave, I want to leave a legacy of things that I know. So I want to write the book. So, things were coming to me, like, you know, do a workshop, okay, alright, fine take this class, okay, fine, teach this class, okay, fine. So all of those things were building, building, building, and once I had, in the last workshop that I did, I just thought, oh, that's the book, that's, that's, these, what I wrote for the workshop were all the chapters for the book. So, I recognized it once it was there, but the prayer that I prayed a year ago was being answered as I was doing the classes, reading the stuff, all the things that were coming to me. I didn't realize it until I saw it. I saw it in the workshop that I had done, oh, oh, there's a book. There's another I guess kind of prayer or aspect of prayer, whatever that, because sometimes we pray for other people. Yes, we do. I mean, we have here, we have a, a prayer box where you can put a prayer request in or, or you can ask the chaplains after the service to, to pray with you about something. And so what's happening when we're praying for someone else or for something to Transpire with someone else what's going on there? So I'm so glad you asked that because there's a two things that are going on one They asked for prayer You cannot pray for someone who didn't ask you to because they're not open to it. They won't see it. They won't recognize it. It won't happen. You can't do it. Secondly, when someone asks you for prayer, they're recognizing that they are, they are being, they're, they're blocked. Like they don't, they recognize that, but they want it and spirit recognizes it too. So All the person is doing is being an intermediary for you and God recognizes that. That you're asking for prayer and you're using that person as an intermediary. God recognizes that. And so, that's, that's what's going on. The person is not, all they're doing is, all a person who's praying for you from this perspective, from New Thought perspective, is going through the root cat with you. That's all they're doing is saying, I recognize who you are. I recognize that there's that we are, you are united. So, they're just praying that prayer with you. And then, and we're choosing whatever the person wants, you don't have to even state it. We're choosing what's on, what they need to have happen for them. That's what we're choosing, because God knows what that is. You don't have to ever even state it. And so that's, but, but it only works because they have asked for it. They have come and they've put their prayer in the box. They've come and said, Hey, I need some prayer. And they don't ever have to even tell us what it's about. It doesn't matter because what we just said he was omniscient already knows before you go But not gonna interfere if you don't ask if you don't ask and God's not going to God's not going to answer a prayer if you aren't praying because we have free will so live your life But if you want help God's there for you, right? Right? Yeah, and that's the answer the question about well How come the good things happen or bad things? I don't know happen to those people that You We want, as human beings, we want free will. We want to be able to do what we want to do, want to be able to go where we want to go, except when it gets screwed up. And then we want to know why, why, why God didn't jump in. Well, free will or not. What, it's not free will today and not tomorrow. And at the moment you mess it up, then no. Because even if, even if it's messed up, you can, you still have the free will to ask for help. We have that, and that, and that help will arrive. So That's a part of the problem. You have all these people on the planet with free will. Yeah, there is that problem. There is that problem. There's that issue. Yeah. So do you. So do you. Yeah. Yeah. And, and you can ask for help. You can. Whenever you. Anytime. You don't have to even speak it out. You can just, your heart can say it. Like the pain in your heart says it. It's what we call here, when you, when you're ready for prayer, when you're ready for spirit to speak or to assist you, it's called surrender. So you surrender the ego. Like, I can figure this out. I don't need your help. It's like a little kid. Like, no, I can tie my own shoes. Right. Right. That's kind of what we do with Spirit. Like, I can figure this out. Okay, well, go ahead. Let me know. No problems. Just let me know. And there's no, you're not in trouble. You're not going to get upset. Because, you know, you waited ten, twenty five years before you knew what the hell was going on. Would go and have this great time? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. God's not a vengeful God. We were raised with, I was raised, I don't know, I was raised with the idea of a vengeful God, which never worked for me. Because you can't say to me that God is love, and then turn around and say that God is vengeful. Is it love? Or is it, Right. What is it? Right. What is it? Is it free will? Or do you want God to control the whole thing? What is it? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Good. We'll stop this, this episode at that point and thanks to everyone for being with us and we'll see you next time. Yes.