My children, you have been taught by many good teachers, including John, a set form of prayer: “O Father, cleanse us from sin, show us your glory, reveal your love, and let your spirit sanctify our hearts forevermore, Amen!” And while this serves as a good example for the masses, I tell you it was never intended to be the ultimate expression of your own souls.
True prayer is an entirely personal and spontaneous act, a living communion of the soul with the Spirit of the Father. It is the sincere and earnest expression of sonship and the profound feeling of fellowship with the Universal Father. Prayer is not a set formula or a ritualistic repetition; it is the breath of the soul. When inspired by the indwelling Spirit, it becomes a co-operative enterprise for spiritual growth, leading to the highest form of worship. The highest ideal of prayer is the sincere reaching heavenward for the attainment of your divinely implanted ideals.
And you must be persistent in this sacred communion, for persistence is the key to ascending the spiritual path. If one of you has a neighbor and you go to him at midnight, saying, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him,” and if your neighbor answers from within, “Do not trouble me; the door is now shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot rise to give you bread,” I tell you that because of your importunity, he will get up and give you as many loaves as you need. If persistence can win favors from a reluctant human, how much more shall your persistence in the spirit win the bread of life from the willing hands of your Father in heaven.
Therefore, I say to you: Ask, and it shall be given; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened. For every one who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door of spiritual salvation will be opened.
Think, too, of yourselves as fathers. If your son asks you for a loaf, would you give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, would you give him a watersnake, even if he foolishly desired it? No. You, being mortal, know how to give good and appropriate gifts to your children, answering not in the terms of their faulty petitions, but in accordance with your own parental wisdom. How much more shall your heavenly Father, being perfect in wisdom and love, give the Spirit and all other blessings to those who ask him? I say to you, men ought always to pray and not to become discouraged.
Let me also share with you the story of a certain judge who lived in a wicked city. This judge feared not God nor had he respect for man. In that same city was a needy widow who came repeatedly to this unjust judge, saying, “Protect me from my adversary!” For a time, he would not give ear to her, but eventually, he said to himself: “Though I fear not God nor have regard for man, yet because this widow continually troubles me, I will see that she is vindicated, lest she wear me out by her persistent coming.”
I tell you these stories to encourage you to persist in praying, not to suggest that your petitions will change the character of the just and righteous Father above. Your persistence is not to win favor with God; rather, it is to change your own earth attitude and to enlarge your soul’s capacity for spiritual receptivity. It is a persistent expression of faith.
And know this: when you pray, you exercise so little faith. Genuine faith will remove mountains of material difficulty which may chance to lie in the path of your soul’s expansion and spiritual progress.
Michael of Nebadon
