Shut up! You’re Praying the Wrong Way
3 Illuminations that will change your life
Prayer, traditionally understood, is spoken. This form can be therapeutic, yes, but our interpretation of effective prayer needs to be broadened in order to experience the fullness of what it entails.
Prayer, by common standards, is:
- A one-way conversation between an individual and God expressing needs, love, or appreciation. This is most commonly done before bed, at the dinner table, or at specific times of day where it’s deemed relevant.
- A formal statement by a group leader or preacher and listened to by adherents before summing everything up with a closing Amen.
- A cry out from the depths of despair or pain for the hope of reprieve amidst suffering.
- A repetitive collective of words memorized over time and used in varying situations called for by the devotees of specific faiths.
- A series of requests made with the sole intent of receiving reimbursement.
Even though the above classifications aren’t wrong, many are definitely innocuous. A football coach asking God for a win on the field as if somehow his team is more deserved; a father repeating the same prayer over evening stew as if it had any more meaning than discussing the latest sales at the local hardware store; A person praying for restraint despite having the full capacity to take responsibility and commit to it themselves. None of these prayers are harmful but are more of a waste than a point of spiritual ignition.
The positive psychological results of spoken prayer are viable, but it’s been used in manners that has little to do with spiritual growth. Even though it’s been said that ALL prayer is beneficial, that’s just not true. Prayer through suffering is understood, requests for wisdom are meaningful, and deep conversations without structure can be uplifting without question. Yet, the most effective forms of prayer generate results without a word being said.
This is the prayer that I wish to speak of: The type that will give you a multi-dimensional understanding of prayer within the cycle of give/return.
Illumination 1: Prayer is not just a verbal devotional to God but a multi-dimensional exploit that provides magnificent inward and outward results in society.
When you seek Illumination, your whole self is revolutionized and moved into the dominion of a broader comprehension of how life works. The goal is not to chase after God or seek what you want outwardly, which is overly human, but to be a living materialization of a prayer, fully knowing God is with you.
Now we can move to the focus of this article: Your life in itself should be a devotional prayer to God as a continuous state of gratitude and appreciation for being in this brilliant experience. Not only will you find it more valuable to communicate this way, you’ll discover there is very little need for verbal communication because you inhabit your prayer. Also, you can leave the antiquated Amen out of your daily dedication; it’s just a counterfeit closure to an otherwise continuous state of communication.
Another benefit to inhabiting prayer is it directly inspires us you to maintain standards throughout your day so the prayer is a flavorful offering; a gift to God (which is what prayer should chiefly be). Also, it encourages your actions with others, making you a benefit to the positive welfare of society. You may find it surprising that because your actions are the principle way you communicate with God, you will constantly seek a greater devotional state.
When actions are your form of communication, you will go out of your way to treat others better as a prayer to God, help those in need as a prayer to God, and find new ways to enrich our otherwise spiritually impoverished society as a prayer to God. Doing this affects everyone around you and perpetuates joy and kindness wherever you go. This is the power of actionable prayer instead of just moving your mouth. In turn, without even recognizing the swiftness of the transition, you become an active agent of change in society instead of verbally asking to be one…
In other words:
Illumination 2: You BECOME an answer to the prayers of others.
Prayer embodied lets you be prayer, leaving words and their illusions of support irrelevant, forcing you out of the idleness of lip service and into the realm of actual service. Because of this, and the spiritual substrate that connects us all together, you will, by your aid, connect to those whose prayers will be answered by you.
What a marvelous cycle of support!
Prayer communicated through action directly changes lives, benefits society, increases your wisdom, and brings you ever higher in your quest toward brighter Illumination.
Regrettably, communicating with God this way has been a mystery, locked away in lieu of other, less potent practices. Yet now it can be brought to the forefront of your knowledge, supplanting old human techniques, so the world can be augmented by the result of it. It can once again become an embodied exploit and not just a static transfer of sound. This is what changes lives; this is what Awakens Souls, and this is what, when fully inhabited, will change your life forever.
Think about it; if your prayer is woven into your daily actions, then there is no room for negative deeds, behavior unbecoming of an Illuminated Soul, anger, rudeness, worthless reflections and projections, and defeating thoughts. If you know what to say to God as a verbal declaration of devotion, then you’ll know what connotes an action of devotion properly communicated as well…It’s built into the construct of your Soul.
You’ll also discern what actions are not devotional, disrupting the prayer, and falling out of tune with the symphony of your constant commitment. You’ll comprehend it the second you treat someone in an ill manner or act in an Ungodly way because:
If you are acting in prayer, and treat someone in an un-Illuminated way, you just communicated negatively to God as well.
This is an interesting example (on the other end of the spectrum) of the biblical reference “If you do this to the least of my brethren, you do this to me”—Matthew 25:40.
Thankfully, your observations and self-reminders can help you stay aligned because once inhabiting prayer, anything unspiritual that is acted upon will puncture through and interrupt you, throttling your connection to God and bringing you back to a terrestrial life. These moments will occur. You just get back up, dust off, realign, learn, forgive yourself and move on.
Illumination 3: YOUR prayers are answered as a result of your contribution to the cycle of divine communication.
You’ll find very swiftly just how rewarding communicating and praying to God through action is. Answering the prayer of others will answer your own “dark hour” appeals. Service is one of the most splendid tonics against a host of personal maladies. It takes away the focus on ourselves and demands that we dedicate our energies outwardly, stepping over our lamentations and bending the light in a more useful direction.
In return for your actions, the people who gravitate into your sphere also contribute to the answering of your prayers. This encloses the full cycle of divine communication.
The magnitude of an emanating Soul, acting in accordance with divine will, draws others of their kind, and together, within an ever growing centrifuge of spiritual parallels, all contributing individuals work in unison to provide enrichment to each other’s lives.
In summary, if you are praying verbally to be a more spiritual person, to know peace, to experience harmony, and be in alignment with your purpose here, then consider this an exponentially more effective alternative. Communicating prayer through action will, by the nature of your endeavors, provision all the things you’ve been requesting through words. It’s an extraordinary and delightful occurrence that must be experienced in order to realize the unbridled potency that will manifest as a result.
Dedicate your life to a prayer communicated through a format more powerful than just words. Shut your mouth, honor God with what you do and not just what you say, and let actions be your testimony. Watch the amazing transformation you’ll be provided in return. In doing so, you may just wake up one hour and realize that you embody all the things you once yearned for.
When that happens there won’t be anything left to say.
