Prayer, spiritual sense, and being childlike

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

"And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

"Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality."

What a beautiful thing spiritual sense is! And how important it is as a way to understand how to pray.

But sometimes we forget to get past the intuitions of good that come to us. We don't notice them enough. We don't acknowledge their value and power. We don't move to the next step: HOPE! EXPECTANCY!

Notice how children - when they know something good is coming - absolutely clamor with expectancy! Their joy is contagious. They pester you non-stop until they have what you've promised them.

Isn't this exactly how we should pray to our Father-Mother God? with that intense expectancy of good coming our way?

And notice too how a child will treasure a hoped-for gift. Once it's received, they'll take it with them everywhere, telling everyone about it, showing it to their friends. They might even sleep with it!

Do you do that with your prayer? Do you so joyfully receive that inspiration that you wrap yourself up with it and joyfully take it with you everywhere you go? even sleep with it?

If so, then you're exercising your childlike spiritual sense. And that leads you to understanding - reason as well as revelation. Then can fruition - results! - be far behind?

Hasn't your child-like joy lifted you a little higher where you see the clouds "melting into such thinness" that you begin to see that God has always been with you, always there caring for you, always bringing you the intution, the thought, that you need to take the next sure step?

And with your hand in God's, like a child walking safely with his parent, you see His reality is always already present. Right where you are. Whole, healthy, holy. Just like God made you. His image and likeness. His loved child.

Approaching spiritual sense with that childlike expectancy and faithfulness makes your desires, your prayers, agents of awakening.

"Desire is prayer. And no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds."

Desire is prayer - a prayer that awakens you to the answer already here and now in fulfillment: God's will is already done in you, as you, for you, in completeness, in Life, Truth, and Love.

May your childlike heart receive this gift with joy - and act on it! And even sleep with it!

Desire is prayer

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.

Mrs. Eddy makes this remarkable - and radical - observation at the beginning of her book "Science & Health, with Key to the Scriptures":

"Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds."

Desire is prayer? Really?

Yes, if you really think about it, desire is probably the most perfect and honest form of prayer.

And Mrs. Eddy doesn't stipulate that your desire has to be good, bad or indifferent. What matters is where that desire, that "prayer," is directed!

What's interesting about real desire is, it isn't fake. We all know we've prayed because we're supposed to or because it's expected or because we're scared not to or because we want to look good. But that's just talk. That's not prayer.

Desire is prayer. Desire is urgent and insistent and often wordless and even more often unspoken. It is rarely - if ever - fake. It comes from somewhere deeper than human will. I comes from somewhere more honest than human speech. It comes from somewhere deep within.

But how many times have you felt you could actually trust your genuine burning desires over to God? Don't we more often want to hide our desires from God because we don't think they're good enough or right enough or even honorable enough?

But what if you did start trusting your desires over to God? What if you knew He not only wanted you to trust Him with them, but that He would actually mold them into something beautiful for you and exalt them beyond your expectations - before they take form in word or deed?

But this is exactly what Mrs. Eddy is alerting us all to do: to trust your true desires to God. And to know that He will mold your desires and exalt them into something beautiful and real and spiritually good - into something He would really want for you, His precious child.

You could really then say that the "desire" you feel is actually the birth-pang of Reality - of God's insistant making of you into His likeness. That honest yearning from deep within you, wordless maybe, certainly strong and urgent - is telling you something fundamental about what God wants you to awake to.

Could your desire then actually be God's perfect will for you - maybe viewed "through a glass, darkly" - clamouring to be born in you, as you? to be recognized by you, as you? all glorious within / without, whole, healthy, holy? abundant, complete, fulfilled, awakening to what is already true? to what is already you as God's image and likeness?

Accept the awakening that your genuine desires entail. Accept your desires honestly, maybe even wordlessly just feel them. And then lift them up to God. Trust them to Him. Offer up all of your desires to Him. And through this honest real prayer of yours you will see your desires molded and exalted to be exactly like what God has already prepared especially for you. Accept this! and trust no subsitutes!

His daily Bread of Life will feed all your desires fully as you trust them to Him.

So recieve His grace for today. Let it calm any anxiety you have about your desires. Let His Love instruct you and free you. His Love feeds all hungering desires, all famished affections.

"Desire is prayer..."

"Our Father which art in heaven."
"Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious."

Have you ever stopped to think where your yearning for "something better, higher, holier" comes from? Have you ever stopped to realize that it comes from God?

God speaks to us through our intuition, through our yearning, through our desire. "Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds."

God stirs you to yearn, to wake up to your personal inability, to need to trust your desires to Him.

Why? Because no matter what other solutions you try - drugs, sex, rock-and-roll (or whatever other substitute for real fulfillment you choose) - He alone can fulfill your desire. That is because, at its root, all desire is for that "something better, higher, holier," something powerfully good, something lasting, something more than you can get or make or steal on your own. It is your desire for your oneness with God. He is stirring you - right now - to awake in His likeness, to see yourself as He always already sees you, to be what He already "be's" you!

All desire - no matter how good or bad - is a form of prayer. And the outcome of that prayer is completely based on what - or who - you trust your desires to!

Try trusting them to God. God is always stirring you to want to wake up to Him, to seek so you can find Him, to knock so He can open your heart, to ask so He can tell you "My son... you are always with me and everything I have is yours."

Our Father which art in heaven.
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious

Seek Him. He's as close as your desire.

Temptation and desire ...and prayer

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

"Our Master said, 'After this manner pray ye' and then he gave that prayer which covers all human needs." That prayer is the Lord's Prayer.

What Jesus is telling us is, after this manner therefore express your desires. Put your deepest yearning into these words. Phrase your honest needs this way.

Your yearning, your desires, are a form of prayer itself, probably the most honest form of prayer. And the answer to your every prayer is found here in the meaning -the spirit - of the Lord's Prayer.

Mrs. Eddy wrote: "Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds."

Does that mean you can trust only your holiest desires to God? Or does it also mean you can actually trust all of your desires, all of your genuine honest heartfelt, soul-felt and yes, body-felt, desires to God? Yes, it does.

Mrs. Eddy makes another astute observation: "Honesty is spiritual power. Dishonesty is human weakness, which forfeits divine help." She also writes: "We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are."

The best place to start your prayer is by examining - and honestly acknowledging - your real desires. Not the desires you think you should have. Not the ones that other people think are good for you. Not the ones society as a whole preaches about. But yours. What you feel deeply and sincerely - good, bad, or indifferent!

And oh everyone - including you - is "praying" this way all the time! It's just that most people never realize that what they're cherising in their heart, what they're desiring, what they're focusing on, is actually a prayer.

And what everyone - including you - usually forget to do, is to actually trust God with those desires. Instead, you trust your desire to the ego's self-indulgence! And then your prayer gets answered with busyness instead of Life, entertainment instead of Truth, part-time pleasures instead of Love - fantasy instead of Reality!

But that's OK. Everyone does it. Just pay more attention. Don't let the ego's little temptations lead you down its deadend roads. Instead, be aware of what you are honestly desiring in your heart. Notice it. Bring it out into the open. Don't be afraid of it. NEVER be afraid to be completely honest with yourself about your heart's true feelings! and NEVER be afraid to completely trust those feelings, those desires, those deep deep yearnings to your Father-Mother God.

And God never leads us into tempation, but always delivers us into holiness, and wholeness, and Life!