I’d been praying for a deeper surrender into faith and God, so as lessons go, life has delivered circumstances that have triggered my deepest fears. Watch out for what we ask for because God will deliver the lessons but not necessarily in the package we expect. A co-worker asked me how I’m staying so calm in the midst of it. I said, “I’m praying all day long.” Phillip Brooks says that, “Prayer is not the overcoming of God’s reluctance, but the taking hold of God’s willingness.” Prayer is making a comeback. In the face of the profound changes in and around us and the endless negativity in the media, many spiritual seekers are turning inward for answers. Simply, prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening. Prayer is one of the greatest powers at our disposal and yet, it has gone unused because many people feel that we can only pray if we’re in a religious setting. The function of prayer is to lift our souls into a new consciousness, one aligned with our well-being and our soul’s purpose so that our life becomes new. When we allow our minds to be filled with prayerful thoughts all day long, no matter where we are, we can create huge attitudinal shifts that are necessary to manifest all the good we deserve. If we pray from God instead of to God, we’ll begin to recognize the power of God within us and expressed as us.

Rather than ask God to send us a brilliant career, we can ask God to show us our brilliance within. It is the recognition of this brilliance that releases it into expression.  William Barry writes, “Whether we’re aware of it or not, at every moment of our existence we are encountering God- Who is trying to catch our attention, trying to draw us into a reciprocal conscious relationship.” Our capacity to pay attention to God is like any new skill. It gets stronger the more that we practice it. Connecting to God trains the mind to think from a loving and faithful perspective. Positive prayerful thinking boosts our immune systems and challenges the default fearful settings in our brains. Being in a prayerful state is being in the present. The difference between those who live their potential and those who don’t is not the amount of potential itself, but how much we permit ourselves to live in the present.

Bob Fisher, a cinematographer wrote about the need for movie crews to spend some time everyday reviewing the film that was shot the day before. In this way, the filmmakers could spot their little mistakes while they could still be corrected and celebrate those great moments that went the way they wanted them to. He said, “Watching film dailies is uplifting. It energizes everyone.” At night, when we lie down to sleep, it’s helpful to review our “dailies” with God. We can walk through our day and notice when we allowed our God within to be present in each scene we encountered and when we didn’t. Where were the black clouds and where were the rainbow moments?

Jesus instructed to “Pray without ceasing.” Thinking prayerfully throughout our day is not just a tool or practice; it’s an art and becomes a way of life. To pray without ceasing keeps our mind linked with our highest consciousness and the infinite power of the universe. It’s not a formula; it’s an attitude - an opportunity, not an obligation. Like in the movie, “E.T,” prayer is our medium to phone home and unite with the Source that we missed when we were wandering in the far country of our fears, guilt and shame. Let’s practice prayerful thoughts like arrows drawn in the bow of love and pointed away from us toward another child of God. Allow these timeless affirmations to build a bridge between Heaven and Earth, brother and sister and our own harmony with the God of our understanding.

Please write to Dr. Sandy Islands at sandyislands@hawaii.rr.com and feel free to browse previous articles at www.sandyislands.com under publications.