Life of Prayer II - Lesson 6: Living a Life of Prayer

Reading:

  1. Effectual Prayer: Chapter 8 — Living the Life

1. OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW

  1. If a person would grow, he must live whatever message is given to him in the silence.
  2. Unless the message from the Father becomes a living, vital reality in the daily life, seeking the silence becomes a mere pastime, a pretense, and hinders growth instead of hastening it.
  3. No message is too trivial to be carried out.
  4. Frederich Douglas the great Negro Educator said that in the days of his slavery he used to pray for freedom. However, his prayer was not answered until it got down into his heels and he ran away.
  5. Jonah found himself in serious trouble by acting in opposition to the inner guidance.
  6. Naaman, seeking to be healed, was angry because the prophet gave him such a simple thing to do.
  7. God does not force anyone to do His will. He gives us free will, the right of choice, but His law is that according as we use the gift of choice so will the manifestation be.
  8. We each learn in some way, at some time, obedience to the higher self, that in us which is Godlike.
  9. It is obedience to this self, no matter how trivial the command, that prepares us to receive higher messages, that strengthens us for greater endeavor.

2. LIVING THE TRUTH WE KNOW

  1. If a person would have his prayers answered he must be willing to be a channel through which the prayers of others are answered.
  2. If he would be healed he must be willing to be a healer of discords.
  3. If we would have prosperity we must be willing to give as freely as we desire to receive.
  4. We must not only be willing to do these things, but we must prove our willingness by doing them.
  5. If we look ourselves squarely in the face, we shall see that many times the things we are asking in prayer we are not trying to live in our life.
  6. We all know more Truth than we live or try to live.
  7. John Oxenham sums it up thusly:
    "To every man there openeth
    a way, and ways, and a Way.
    The High Soul climbs the High Way
    The Low Soul gropes the Low
    And in between, on the misty flats
    The rest drift to and fro.

    But to every man there openeth
    A High Way, and a Low
    And every man decideth
    The Way his soul shall go."
  8. Henry van Dyke puts it this way:
    "Four things a man must learn to do
    If he would make his record true
    To THINK without confusion clearly
    To LOVE his fellow man sincerely
    To ACT from honest motives purely
    To TRUST in God and heaven securely."

3. TEN IDEAS FOR LIVING A LIFE OF PRAYER

I call these rules for Thanksliving.

  1. You can thank God for the gift of life by living triumphantly.
  2. You can thank God for your talents and abilities by accepting them as obligations to be invested for the good of all.
  3. You can thank God for all that has been done for you by doing things for others.
  4. You can thank God for challenges by accepting them as opportunities to achievement.
  5. You can thank God for happiness by striving to make others happy.
  6. You can thank God for beauty by helping to make the world more beautiful.
  7. You can thank God for health and strength by the care and reverence you show your body.
  8. You can thank God for the creative ideas that enrich your life by adding your own creative contribution to human progress.
  9. You can thank God for each new day by living it to the fullest.
  10. You can thank God for inspiration by trying to be an inspiration to others.

To your prayers of thanksgiving add your acts of thanksliving. And do it all in Love.

4. CONCLUSION

For the closing meditation use the prayer in italics on page 106 of Effectual Prayer.