Prayer
(This is an excerpt from University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
Prayer is a gift to and from a loving God and gives us a way to communicate gratitude and seek His guidance in our lives. It is an act of worship that involves listening as well as talking. Teach children to understand that God wants to help them according to His great wisdom and love by showing them how to pray. You could create a spiritual family bond using prayer for comfort, protection and to show gratitude. Make a ritual of family prayer, morning and night, as well as individual prayer.
Paula Fellingham, in Solutions For Families (2000) quotes a study in 1988 done by a cardiologist named Dr. Randolph Byrd at the San Francisco General Hospital. “There were 393 patients divided by a computer into two groups and one group were prayed for by prayer groups. The prayer group was simply given the patients’ first names, along with brief descriptions of their medical problems. They were asked to pray each day until the patient was discharged from the hospital, but were given no instructions on how to do it or what to say. When the study was completed ten months later, the prayed-for patients benefited in several significant areas: They were 5 times less likely than the unremembered group to require antibiotics. They were 2 times less likely to suffer congestive heart failure and less likely to suffer cardiac arrest. If the medical technique being studied had been a new drug or surgical procedure instead of prayer, it would probably have been heralded as a breakthrough. Even hard-boiled skeptics like Dr. William Nolen, who had written a book questioning the validity of faith healing, acknowledged, “If this is a valid study, we doctors ought to be writing on our order sheets, Pray three times a day.” If it works it works! Some studies have shown that a simple “Thy will be done” was more powerful than specific results held in the mind. In many experiments a simple attitude of prayerfulness, an all pervading sense of holiness and a feeling of empathy, caring and compassion seemed to set the stage for healing… Prayer is a reminder of our unbounded nature, the part of us that is infinite in space and time. It is the universe’s affirmation that we are not alone. Lily Tomlin, a famous actress, once said, “Why is it that when we talk to God, we call it prayer, but when God talks to us, they call it schizophrenia?”
Four Steps Of Prayer
- Prepare. As we prepare to speak to God, we should try to rid our mind of worldly thoughts and focus on Him. For a moment we should contemplate God’s greatness and goodness and think about what we’ll say in our prayer.
- Express gratitude. The second part of a prayer is to praise God and thank Him for His blessings to us and to our family. We should thank God for specific things, expressing gratitude with all our heart.
- Ask for help. We should pray for specific ways God can help us, and seek forgiveness for our wrong doings.
- Listen. When we pray we seek God, and try to understand His will. How can we learn if we don’t listen? We should keep our minds open and believing. During and after our prayers we should pause and listen, trying sincerely to receive insights and ideas that may help us. Divine impressions will come to us more readily when we’re quiet and listen for them.