Unity's basic metaphysical principles include the belief that there is power in affirmative prayer, which we belive increases our connection to God.

All About Prayer
Unity Basic Principle #4
Rev. Don Jennings - Past Minister

Most of us have heard the story about the woman who took a world cruise and the ocean liner she was on hit an ice berg in the North Atlantic. She went to the captain and asked if everything was all right. After he had assured her that things were fine, she saw him scurrying from one place to another, yelling commands at the crew. She stopped him again, only to be told that the ship was very safe, and that they were just having an drill to make sure that everyone knew his assignments.

Soon she began to feel the ship starting to almost imperceptibly list in the direction of the ice berg's last location, and once again she went to the captain seeking assurances. His time his reply was short and to the point: "Madam, I suggest that if you know any prayers, you say them." Her response was equally suggestive: "My God, has it come to that?"

Unfortunately, too often, people of otherwise reasonable mind and heart, tend to react to the idea of prayer in a similar fashion to our ship-board comrades: In the case of the captain, prayer seemed to be best suggested as a last resort, after everything else had been done. To the woman, the mere suggestion of prayer was enough to loose all hope.

Why do we have that problem? After all, doctors tell us to keep doing what we are doing when prayer brings about a healing miracle. Studies of prayer have moved from the church to the scientific laboratory. For thousands of years people have been praying, seeking, asking just as Jesus recommended, and wonderful things happen, from time to time.

That is the challenge. Prayer seems to be fickle. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Even ministers will tell you, sometimes God says no. And we never know when the answer to our prayers is going to be the one we want, and when it is going to make us angry at God, have a crisis of faith, or just make us want to chuck the whole idea of prayer all together.

So, what does Unity have to say about the subject?

Affirmative Prayer

The fourth of our basic principles says that "There is power in affirmative prayer, which we believe enhances or increases the effectiveness of our connection with God." This means that when we pray, it brings us more into alignment with our spiritual self, thus, allowing things to happen that emanate directly from that source without interference from the outer.

There are some rules that make prayer either somewhat effective or much more effective, depending upon your starting place. But let's start by defining a term: what is prayer? Charles Fillmore, in Jesus Christ Heals says "Prayer is both invocation and affirmation. Meditation, concentration, denial. and affirmation in the silence are all forms of what is loosely termed prayer." (JCH 70).

I want to call your attention to the lack of terms like beseeching, bargaining, and pleading. While we all have learned about the value of using these tools on a parent, they don't work well in prayer as defined in Unity.

Continuing with Mr Fillmore for a moment, "If a man's prayers are based on the thought of his own righteousness and the sinfulness of others, he does not fulfill the law of true prayer. Self-righteousness is an exclusory thought and closes the door to the great Father love that we all want." (JCH 70).

We have been so persistently taught that prayer consists in asking God for some human need that we have lost sight of our spiritual identity and have become a race of praying beggars. (TUP 4).

He then proceeds to instruct us in what prayer consists of: The prayer of faith is not supplication, a begging God to give things to man. Prayer at its highest is the entry of the ego through faith into a realm of mind forces that when rightly contacted change the character of every cell in brain and body (TUP 28, 29).

Prayer is the exercise of faith in the presence and power of the unseen God. Supplication, faith, meditation, silence, concentration, are mental attitudes that enter into and form part of prayer (ASP 11).

So, lets recap for a moment: Prayer is not looking for God to perform some task for us that we do not want to do, or are unwilling to do for ourselves.

Beggarly Prayer

Prayer is not the act of seeking for God to provide something we know without doubt we do not have, even if we know we, as children of God have every right to it. (I will get back to this in a little while.)

Prayer is not trying to get God to manipulate the tumblers of universal law for your own gain, even if your desire is altruistic.

One the other side of the coin, Prayer is affirmation of what is, and denial of what is not. Prayer is a kind of thought. Some people say every thought is a prayer, while others argue that prayers are special kinds of thought. I believe that when we follow the rules, wherever you come down on that argument you find that you are right.

Prayer includes faith, meditation, silence, concentration, even supplication, according to Mr Fillmore. Prayer includes other things as well, we will see as we investigate this further. My intent is to give you something that will work more consistently if your prayer- life has had times of hit and miss, or to affirm and enhance your prayer life if you are currently pretty will satisfied with it.

My intent is not to say some prayer is wrong. I have seen miraculous results from prayer that was filled with supplication, begging and beseeching. I have seen the results of collective bargaining with God, or people getting their way by getting angry at God. But I have also seen many more people feel the frustration of having such techniques fail miserably. My intent is to both raise the bar a bit, prayerfully speaking, and see if we can, at the same time, establish a much better track record when it comes to answered prayer.

Lets get into the how-to's. To do this, we have to review some of the information from the last few weeks:

The Mechanics of Prayer

First: God is the where of everywhere, and the what of everything. Said differently, seeking God is redundant, you cannot look anywhere without seeing God expressing.

Second: if God is everywhere, then what we seek is everywhere, because there is only one answer to every question: God. If you lack something, is it lacking, or are you just not seeing God as that something? If it is missing, God is missing, and God cannot be missing, so what we seek in prayer is not missing, we just don't see it yet.

Third: What we do not yet believe, or have absolute faith in as God expressing, we do not see. Thus, we need to affirm what we do not see until we believe, or have absolute faith in as God expressing, then it can manifest to our eyes. Thus, if you do not see health in your life, or the life of another, affirm it with the understanding faith that knows it exists because God is health, and you will see it manifest as your faith becomes belief.

Nothing is missing, except our perception of the reality of God as everything. This is what I was talking about when I said "Prayer is not the act of seeking for God to provide something we know without doubt we do not have, even if we know we, as children of God have every right to it." There is nothing we do not have!

The next part is denial of what is not. We tend to affirm an awful lot of what is not, meaning, we affirm lack of health, to stay with my example. Another example is prosperity. If we were to affirm prosperity with the same vigor we affirm lack, there would be no lack in the world at all. But we trust our outer senses more than our inner sense of what is right and true.

A while ago I said there was only one answer: God. So what is the question? Maybe it has to do with where Carolyn and I are going to live. And where the resources are coming from to provide for us if we are guided to continue to work with this congregation.

The answer is easy and evident, and it has nothing to do whatsoever with a bank account or lack thereof. It has nothing to do with anything except God, and to the extent that we choose to know that without question, the provision for our needs cannot help but be met. You decide the question, without fail, God is the answer! That is prayer that cannot fail.

Prayerful Meditation

Meditation, or sitting in the silence is an important part of prayer too. It is not enough to affirm the truth and deny that which is not true. We must be willing to listen as well. Listening, or stilling the mind so that the inspiration of God can fall on a receptive mind and heart is the channel through which the activity of God can instruct, guide, and direct your thoughts and actions.

There is more, but that is for a class on prayer, where we can create a laboratory of our own. For now, think on this: what are you praying for? Are you affirming what seems to be and denying God? For the next seven days, become aware of your thoughts and your prayers. As you do, you will find them becoming one in the same. Thoughts that do not support the truth you know in your heart and soul will become increasingly uncomfortable, until you are unwilling to entertain them any longer.

Jesus suggests that we not let our hearts be troubled, but believe in Him. Believe in what he represents in you, and know the truth. It is that truth that will set you free of whatever you believe at this moment holds you captive. Don't pray to be set free, pray rejoicing that you are already free in Christ!