How to Pray With Gratitude: Trust, Faith & Manifestation

What if the way you pray could change the way you experience life? When we’re facing uncertainty—health concerns, financial pressure, relationship challenges, or simply a difficult day—it’s easy for prayer to become a desperate request for something to change. But what happens when we begin with gratitude instead?

In this episode, I explore a simple shift that has transformed my own experience of prayer: giving thanks as if what you’re asking for has already happened.

We unpack why gratitude-first prayer can feel unfamiliar at first, how it connects with the familiar ask, believe, receive principle, and why adding genuine thanks can shift us from fear and uncertainty into trust, clarity, and action.

I also explore the connection between prayer, spirituality, and our inner state. Rather than praying from a place of “please, I need this,” we look at what becomes possible when prayer comes from a deeper sense of trust—while still taking inspired action and letting go of the need to control exactly how the outcome will unfold.

Then I share three personal stories that bring this practice to life: finding a pair of sentimental sunglasses not once but twice; navigating a family journey through a stage-four cancer diagnosis while using “thank you for complete healing” as a daily anchor; and turning the uncertainty of a delayed flight and tight connection into an opportunity to write pages of gratitude and find calm in the middle of the chaos.

Throughout the conversation, we return to a grounded principle:

Pray whilst you move your feet—and let go of the how.

This is not about pretending challenges don't exist. It's about choosing the state from which you meet them.

A conversation about prayer, gratitude, faith, trust, manifestation, and the power of becoming grateful for what you are still waiting to receive.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

How do you approach the challenges in your life and the dreams you really want to manifest? Over the years I've discovered a few different ways of approaching both, but one that's completely changed the way I pray. Now we all up against different sets of challenges and things we really want to draw into our experience, but today I want to share with you three personal stories that have taught me something profound about prayer. And I think there's something in here for you, if you pray, that could change the way you approach your own challenges and dreams. Enjoy the episode. Hello

Praying Backwards And Why It Fails

SPEAKER_00 0:33

and welcome back to the James Grandstrom Podcast Super Soul Model series. What if you've been praying, but you've been praying backwards? Whether you go to synagogue, you go to church, you go to temple, you believe in God, the universe, your relationship with that higher power is your own. But when we pray, and it we tend to pray from a state of neediness, of lack, of begging, please help me get this, or please help heal this person, or I really need this relationship to work out, or I really need this financial situation to be resolved, or I really need this health diagnosis to go away. Whatever it may be, whatever your challenge may be, maybe you've been praying backwards. And I just want to clarify something that I've discovered in the last couple of years, even though I've been praying my entire life, and I was brought up a Catholic, I went to church most Sundays, but there was something about the entire spiritual experience there that made me question quite a few things. So I started looking down other avenues. But this episode really is something close to home because when I discovered this really simple way of praying, I started to get amazing results. And it's not to say, don't pray. It's actually to say, why not try praying this way and see what feedback you get from your source, your energy, your God, your universe, whatever you wish to call it. Because in my experience, some of the things that I want to share with you in this episode has literally blown my mind and heart wide open and has made me look completely differently at prayer. And this isn't to convince you of anything, but to give you a doorway, give you a message so you can consider trying it and having your own experience. And so most of us pray from a state of neediness, of begging, or please help me, or please make this happen. This is all from a state of I don't have. And this is the challenge that we have with prayer. This is what I discovered in my own experience after praying for my entire life to recognise there's something about this that isn't working. Okay, maybe some things have worked, but it's not been consistent. But when I began to change the way I prayed after reading some several books and trying things differently and really looking deep into scripture and going, well, how do I pray effectively when I've been going through real challenges? That is when this idea really began to solidify in my mind. And this is what I want to share with you today. A really clear and simple way that you can pray in a way that will give you results that I can't tell you what they're going to be, but I can tell you they'll bring you greater happiness and they'll give you greater peace. So what

What Prayer Really Means

SPEAKER_00 3:35

does prayer mean? Well, prayer could mean quite a few things. It could mean you communicating with God or source energy, it could mean you surrendering, you having faith, you changing your internal state to feel better. It could mean you having gratitude. What does it mean to you? You know, I like to see prayer as you talking to God, you talking to life, you talking to source, and I like to see meditation as you stilling your mind and being able to listen. But meditation isn't the only way we listen. We listen through our intuition, through our instincts, through being still, through being present, through spending time in nature, through spending time in a spiritual place that means something to you. When we're still we're able to receive that beautiful quiet wisdom because stillness speaks. And prayer could mean to you gratitude, it could mean surrender, it could mean faith, it could mean, like I said, changing your internal state, and it could mean you communicating with your source, your your God, your universe, whatever you wish to call it. So maybe prayer isn't about you trying to convince God or the universe of anything, but you meeting it with the right recipe. And that's when prayer becomes really magical, and I've seen it in my own experience. There is a three-part process in modern-day manifestation. Abraham Hicks talks about it, it's written in the Bible, and it says ask, believe, and receive. But if we were to insert one little thing somewhere in that three-part trilogy, we would put ask, believe, give thanks as if it's done, and then receive.

The Missing Step: Thanks First

SPEAKER_00 5:23

And so in this episode, the missing ingredient is giving thanks as if it's already done. So let's look at two different types of praying. One which is please God, please Lord, please universe, please let this happen, please make this happen. Versus the second type of prayer, which is the one I started to use, which is thank you that this has already happened. This seemed absolutely foreign to me when I started to pray like this, because at first it was like, How can I pray for something that I don't yet have? That's why I'm already asking for it. I'm asking. But if you ask, believe, give thanks as if it's done, then you receive. And if we look in ancient scriptures and texts, and particularly the Bible, and we look under the Gospel of Mark, there's a passage and it says something like this Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe you have already received it, and it will be yours. I used to always pray from a state of please let this happen, please make this happen, please let me be okay, which is a kind of needy prayer. It's coming from a place of lack, it's coming from a place of I don't have it. And whilst there is some beauty and some sincerity behind that, the one that says, Thank you, that this is already done is the one that actually builds really powerful faith, faith in yourself that you are commanding to life itself that this is already done. This is profound because we see it everywhere. Like before we eat our food, we bless our food and give thanks before our food. And I've been doing this all my life, and I thought, well, why don't we do this also with all my prayers? And the results I was getting was really incredible. I started to bless different areas of my life, like the money that I was spending in the supermarket or wherever I was going to buy, I would bless it and say, May the I bless this money. Thank you very much indeed for this money. May this go out into the world and bless other people. So I was putting blessings back into the economy. And Ken Honda, who I had on this show, who wrote a fantastic book called Happy Money, was saying, always say thank you for all the money you've received, and thank you for all the money you are receiving, and thank you for all the money you will ever receive. And this concept just seemed so simple. But when you are thankful for what you have, you will get more. And in the Quran it says, if you are grateful, I will surely increase you. And that is beautiful because it's saying when we're grateful for something in a prayer, we will get more. And when we're thanking something in advance as if it's already happened, now we're using prayer in a beautiful and magical and commanding way. So in the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, he said, Thank you, Father, for you've heard me. You are now healed. This is powerful. But it takes us to be able to get out of our mind in order for us to speak these prayers with a sense of command. So what does it feel like to pray as if your prayer has already been answered? What does it feel like to come from this state? Because what's happening energetically is you're sending out this energetic signature of thanks and gratitude out to the quantum field, of which it's picking up the emotional signature, your signature of gratitude, and then it's bringing back something like circumstances, events, people, places, things that match that frequency of gratitude. Because in the universe, what you send out must come back. So when we're sending out the emotional signature in prayer of thanks and gratitude, as if something's done, this is when we get to see magic and miracles, but really it's just focus. It is your ability to commune with your higher power, your source, and source must give you back the energetic signature or things of light frequency that you're sending out. This is the beauty, this is the magic. And when I came across this book by Rhonda Byrne, The Magic, it has been incredibly transformative because there are so many practices of being thankful and grateful. But the one that's really stuck with me in my prayer is to be thankful as if something is already done. And I want to share with you a few stories that have happened to me as a result of praying like this, so that you can get your own experience. Now, these are my experiences, which has deepened my faith and trust in this process of prayer, trying to do it in the right way after doing it for so many years in a way that I felt a bit needy, that felt like, oh, please help me. But this came from a position of power, it came from a position of authority, and it helped me build a greater connection with my source. The

A Beach Test With Lost Sunglasses

SPEAKER_00 10:18

first story, I was walking up and down the beach with my girlfriend and the dog, and we just decided that it would be a good idea to pick up a little bit of litter. So we picked up a little bit of litter, and about 20 minutes go by, and we're walking down a long beach, only to discover that my sunglasses that I'd taken off my head and put them in my pocket had slipped out and fallen out somewhere, and I couldn't find them anywhere. And I spent the next 40 minutes scouring the beach trying to find my sunglasses, and these were a really beautiful pair of sunglasses that meant a lot to me. They were sentimental. And it was challenging, and I didn't know what to do, but I remembered to go back to this sort of prayer, be thankful as if it's already happened. And we traced all our steps back to the house, which wasn't too far away from the beach, but no joy. And that's when I started to pray like this. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I found my sunglasses. And I just kept on going on and on, saying this over and over again. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I've now found my sunglasses. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord. I've now found my sunglasses. And I kept on saying it. And I went back to the house, didn't find them. We even looked near the trash bins to see them there, but they weren't there. And I went back down to the beach, and I felt inspired to walk back down to the beach whilst repeating this. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I've now found my sunglasses. I have now found my sunglasses with three thanks in advance. And I went to the shore, like where the dog was walking, and I noticed about 40 centimetres from the water this little reflection, and there it was. There were my pair of sunglasses, the purse sunglasses that I had. And it I couldn't believe it. They could have been washed out to shore in the last 40 minutes, but I found them. Would you believe it? And I was absolutely relieved because I thought they were an absolute goner. Now, this story is an everyday story, you know, people think, oh, that's a bit of luck. But this is what happened. About two weeks later, we were doing the same thing again. We were walking up and down the beach, walking the dog and different shirt, and they fell out again. And I couldn't believe it. I felt so silly. I felt so silly that they'd fallen out again. Now the same thing had happened only two weeks prior. So once again, I said that prayer, thank you, thank you, thank you. I've now found my sunglasses. Now, this time it was a bit quicker. It took me 20 minutes to find them. But again, that adrenaline rush, that fear, that anxiety started to well up inside of the body. It's like, oh no, not again. Now I've been really irresponsible. It's not just happened once, it's happened twice. But again, I said, Thank you, thank you, thank you. I've now found my sunglasses. And I said, I've now found my sunglasses easily. And would you believe it? I found them again. So it didn't happen once, it happened twice. So this was just like an everyday experiment that confirmed I was like, Am I praying correctly? And am I getting feedback from life to say this is how you do it? Because I wasn't sure. You know, I I needed to have more evidence that this is the right way of praying. So at what point do you stop and pay attention? At what point do you stop and go, wow, this this is really powerful?

When The Stakes Are Life And Death

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Now, the next story I want to share is when the stakes are a lot higher. The stakes were a lot higher because someone very close to me, my beloved sister, was diagnosed with stage four cancer back in 2021. And my mum and I were praying every day for her, and we kind of changed the prayer from please let her be alright, please let her live, please maybe she okay she be okay to thank you, thank you, thank you for her complete healing. Thank you, thank you, thank you. She is now healed. And this is really tough. Now take from it what you will, but this gave us peace when we were saying this prayer. Thank you, thank you, thank you. She is now healed and happy and healthy. So we didn't know what the outcome was going to be, but we decided that we would pray together every single day. Thank you, thank you, thank you. She's now healed, happy, and healthy. So when we got that call on December the 24th, 2022, that was some of the best news we'd heard. And is it our prayer? No, not necessarily, but I feel like at some level we may have contributed to it, even though we may never know. So this encouraged me to keep going with different types of prayers, always saying thanks in advance. And I bless my water before I drink it, I bless everything before I go. So before I even have a meeting, I bless the meeting before I go. I give thanks for the meeting before I go. I give thanks for family parties and meetings and business meetings and client meetings before I even walk in there. I'm always being thankful and grateful in advance. And even I've had some fun saying to my sister, thank you. I've had the best Christmas this year when she's hosted me for Christmas. She goes, Well, we haven't finished yet, we haven't even started. I said, But thank you, had the most amazing time. And I absolutely love this philosophy, this way of prayer, because it's just commanding the universe to say, Thank you. I had the best time. Now, don't believe me, I'm a messenger, but try it and notice what comes back, what good feelings come back as a way of praying and saying thanks in advance, as if it's already done now. The sunglasses happening not once but twice really made me pay attention. With my sister's green light after having cancer and coming back and having remission was just one of the most beautiful healing experiences of saying there is a way we can pray.

Let Go Of How And Move Your Feet

SPEAKER_00 16:26

So, with this prayer, one of the things you have to do is you've got to let go of the how. When you're saying thank you, thank you, thank you, I've now found my sunglasses, for instance, you've got to keep moving your feet. The Quakers say, pray whilst you move your feet. So I was saying thank you whilst I move my feet. I really love that. Pray whilst you move your feet. And it's the same. When something's really important to you, maybe you're wanting to draw a lot of money to you through your business, pray and say thanks whilst you move your feet and take action every single day on something important to you. You will be divinely directed. And if you've lost your keys or something, pray with thanks as if you found them whilst you move your feet. Now, I've seen this time and time again in my own experience, but you have to let go of the how and be thankful as if you found it. So if you are wanting to attract a new partner, be thankful for your perfect partner as if they're already here. That is the way to pray. If you are wanting greater health or you're wanting to lose weight or gain weight or be healthier or have a more beautiful, robust, strong body, be thankful for the health that you do have. Thank you for the health that I do have, and thank you for me being the perfect way at X. Or thank you for me making X amount of money that I've now just received. Keep using this formula of prayer. Thank you, thank you, thank you that I have just received this. Now you don't know the how. The quantum field, there is a delay, there's a buffer of time. But if you keep this faith up, that faith creates the belief, which means that you will also receive because you're already asking. But when you're believing and giving thanks, that is when you'll receive because that helps build your faith muscle. If anything, saying thank you, thank you, thank you, whilst you move your feet as if something's already done, as if you're taking divine action, your inspired action, that is when your faith muscle begins to strengthen. Now, your faith may be tested on many occasions like mine has, but if you can be thankful and advanced, you will strengthen that faith muscle. Most people don't pray like this. They're going, oh please, may I have this? I need this, I will need this to feel fulfilled. This is why we get anxious. We get anxiety because we're trying to predict a future rather than create one. And we're trying to predict a future from a past that has already got trauma in it. But when we're praying as if something is already done, we're beginning to change the inner energy that we're sending out to the quantum field. We're sending out to source energy. The universe, God, always has one answer, yes. So when you're saying thank you for what you want, as if it's already done, it will go yes. But when you're sending out an energetic signature of worried, anxious, I'm not sure how this is going to happen, the source energy, the quantum field will go yes, and give you more like-minded things. It won't show you evidence yet. You can't see those so-called coincidences yet until your energy is in harmony again. That is why practicing gratitude before something is done will strengthen your faith. So the next thing you've got to do is you've got to get out of your own way. You have to not be concerned with how things are going to happen, but when you get an inspired hit, you take action. That is the power. When you are inspired, you take action. And the third story I want to share with you is one that really sort of solidified this and brought it home.

Delays, Airports, And Gratitude On Demand

SPEAKER_00 20:05

Now, if the first two stories weren't already evidence for me to say pray as if it's already done, this one really got me because I was coming back from a skiing holiday and I had two connecting flights. But when I arrived at Geneva Airport, what I discovered was my flight was already delayed. And it that wouldn't have been a problem, but I needed to catch another flight in Zurich in order to get home. And if I didn't make it to Zurich on time, I would miss the second flight. And then I'd have to travel the next day. So the challenge that I had was I was up against time, I was up against pressure. And obviously, when you're rushing and you're needing things to be different, it's almost as if you know life wants to slow you down. When you are resistant and rushing, how often do you see more red lights? So this is what I did. I went to the desk and I said, Do you have any idea when the flight's gonna take off? Are we gonna still make it in time to zoom it because I've got a connecting flight? And they said, Sorry, sir, I don't know. So instead of being frustrated, which I could begin to feel that rising up in my system, I went and sat down, I got out my phone, I plugged it in to one of the charging stations, and I wrote in the notes section on my phone this. Thank you for all the airline staff, thank you for the planes, thank you for the people that move all the bags, thank you for the ease of the transport, thank you for the airline for getting me to and from my destinations, thanks for my bags arriving. And I was like, Wow, don't believe that, but I'm writing it down anyway. And I wrote, Thank you for making giving me enough time to catch the connecting flight. And I just went on and on and on. So 30 minutes later, after writing that out non stop, 30 minutes, thank you for this, thank you for this, thank you for this, thank you for this, it almost seemed a little Compulsive but and obsessive, but I did it anyway because I really wanted to focus on where I was going, which was to catch the flight, make the flight, and make it back home in time. The bell rings and we're called to board the flight. And I did ask, I said, Thank you for your help. Do you know if we're gonna make it to Zurich on time? And they said, sorry, sir, I don't know, but they'll let you know on the plane. So I board the plane, and they said, We're gonna try and catch up and make as much time as possible. Sorry for the delay. And I decided I would spend that flight doing more of the same. Thank you that I've made it. Thank you that I've had enough time. Thank you that I've made it to the hangar-in time. Thank you that my bags have made it. Thank you for the pilots. Thank you for the airline staff. And I had a really lovely flight by being so appreciative. Thank you for the space that I have on the airline. I really like Swiss Air. They're a really good company, good airline. And I went on and on and on. And would you believe it? I had five minutes to get off the plane and get to the next desk where I'd board my next flight, getting home. And I made it. And when I made it, I was absolutely and utterly relieved that I've made it. And I remember walking down the tunnel with such relief. Like there was just like a beautiful energy rushing through my system, just thinking, wow, all this thanks is incredible. And the flight from me from Zurich back home only took like two hours. But I let my whole nervous system just relax and I slept, and it was a really pleasant flight. You know, I just thought when I coming out of the airline, coming out of the airport airport, I thought, you know what, I'm just going to check the carousel because they would have had ten minutes to move my bag from one airline to the next before my next flight took off. And I thought, well, that's pretty close. But I walked past the carousel nonetheless on my way out at the airport when I got home. And the first bag off was mine. And when I picked up my bag, it made me think, wow, this this prayer really works. So I'm going to pray like this with all things because it's the only way that it makes sense. Now until you get your own experience of what prayer is, maybe it's asking. But what if you started giving thanks in advance for everything as if it's already done, even though you don't know how it's going to happen, but you give thanks nonetheless, that strengthens your faith. That strengthens your faith with your creator, your source, your God, your universe, whatever you wish to call it, your higher power. And when you start communing like that, it feels like you feel invincible. And that is a beautiful feeling to have. And what if we all came together in prayer like that to say thank you for the world being in perfect shape? Thank you for the world being in harmony and love and peace. Now I'm an idealist, but imagine if we all came together to do something like that. Wouldn't that be a feat of mankind? Wouldn't that be beautiful? Now I can pray like that by myself, but when we pray like that together, it can be really, really powerful. So instead of saying, please let this happen in the future, why not just say thank you, thank you, thank you that this has happened. And thank you, thank you, thank you for taking care of this. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this now being resolved. Thank you, thank you, thank you for guiding me through this chapter of my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you for having brought me the right people. And then just go, I don't know how this is gonna happen, but thank you for having solved it as if it's already done, and then go about your day. Now you might need to say this many times, but if it's gonna bring you peace, say it many times because sometimes you really need to exercise that faith. So once you've said that, once you've said your prayer like that, then just let it go. Don't spend the next six hours or six weeks or six months trying to figure out how the universe is gonna do it. It knows better than you. And what's for your highest good will always show up. And so thank you, thank you, thank you that this is now resolved. This is a really powerful prayer. Notice what happens in your experience, notice what happens in your energy. Do you feel more calm when you say that? So when you pray from this, you're not praying from fear, you're not praying from desperation, you're not praying from lack, you're coming from a state of wellness, you're coming from a state of equanimity, you're coming from a state of balance. And whenever you are in this good feeling state, say this prayer. Because the better you feel in this space when you're saying your thank you prayers, praying in advance, the better it is. Because remember, it's your energetic signature that you're sending out to the quantum field that's coming back, delivering you that of like frequency. This is what I've noticed in my experience. Even when I've been up against it and challenged like I was at the airport or with my sister's diagnosis, or even the sunglasses that I'd lost. When I was up against it, it still worked. But it's really powerful when you're calm. Even more powerful when you're calm, but it still works when you're not calm. So perhaps a different way to approach prayer isn't from fear, isn't from neediness, isn't from lack, isn't from desperation, but it's one of thanks in advance. This

Daily Thanks Lists And Noticing Miracles

SPEAKER_00 27:21

is the miracle that can change it round. And I want to share with you a little practice that I do uh every single day. Uh I say thanks and write it down, thank you for all the blessings in my life that are already in my life, and then I say thank you for all the blessings that I want to draw into my life as if they've already done. Things like thank you, thank you, thank you, that my podcast has helped reach millions of people and uplift them, inspire them and empower them, things to do with income, things to do with relationships and love, things to do with literally everything in my life that has meaning to me right now. And I say thank you, thank you, thank you, as if they're already done. And also I say thank you for what's for my highest good, and I trust that whatever's for my highest good finds its way to me. These types of two different types of ten blessings, ten that are already in my life, ten that I'm drawing into my life, and I write them every single day. And you know what? It helps strengthen my faith, and the more I write it down, the more I feel it, the more I appreciate it. I feel like the more I feel energized. So this is a beautiful way to pray. Consider it. Sure you will have your own way, but just be mindful and watch for little miracles as you're grateful in advance for certain things. Because I really believe that the more grateful we are, the more we receive. And the less grateful we are, the less we receive. Because to he who has, more shall be given. To he who says he doesn't have a lot, more shall be taken away. So gratitude is just really showing us what's already good in our life. And if we want to draw more good into our life, well, the simplest way is to be grateful as if it's already here, and then what's over there will be here.

Share The Practice And Closing Thoughts

SPEAKER_00 29:10

I hope you've enjoyed this episode. I hope it's inspired you and uplifted you and empowered you and perhaps given you something new that you hadn't really considered before. I know it's absolutely transformed my life. And if you think it would help transform somebody else's life, someone you love, please share it with them. Please share it with them because you know, as we share this information, we help uplift other people. And life isn't just about us, but it is about the lives that we touch. And if you've been a regular viewer or regular listener on the podcast, I am so grateful for you. I love you, I appreciate you. Thank you for coming back and being here. Whether you're watching on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube, thank you so much. And if you like this content, please remember to like, subscribe, and until next time, I wish you a wonderful week ahead and green lights all the way.