Friday, January 26, 2007

Who do you pray to?

A patient called one time and poured out a litany of distresses. He protested in utter agony

  • I can’t figure out how to pray right.
  • I’m never going to figure this problem out.
  • I don’t have enough understanding.
  • I can’t keep my thinking straight.
  • I don’t know what to do.
  • I’m….

And the litany would have gone on and on, I could tell. But being good friends, I interrupted his torrent of fears and jested, “Who are you praying to anyway? To God or to yourself?”

I had never seen the error of ego-worship so clearly before. I’ve done it before myself. You might have too. The error takes the form of us trying to figure everything out on our own as if God doesn’t exist.

In ego-worship, we lip service God’s help, but we ignorantly believe the burden of healing lies upon our shoulders. And eventually we fear failure if we don’t get the truth figured out just right, according to our sense of things.

Let’s think about this stumbling-block to success together…

If we have to figure everything out ourselves, what’s the point of having a God? This is an error of great proportions that saps faith and cripples progress.

God IS our helper. He is the one who gives us adequate understanding, who figures out solutions for us, who keeps our thinking straight and tell us what to do. God is our Mind, afterall.

We don’t have to figure out the solution to every problem alone. What we cannot do, God is doing, and we can rely upon His faithful help to preserve us.

Jesus said,

I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Jesus claimed to do nothing, yet, grand achievements were accomplished through him. He sought the will of the Father and put personal strivings aside. We can learn from his example.

As we yield the human ego and let God’s will be done through us, we’ll witness grand achievements at work in our life too.

So, if you’re getting distressed about the success of your prayers, be sure you’re praying to the right god. Not to the human self, which becomes a vain exercise because there’s no help there to be found, but to the divine Mind which has answered your prayer before you even lodge a request.

13 comments:

O Susannah! said...

Evan, this is right on target. Shines a whole new light on those self-defeating, self-worshipping tirades.

Anonymous said...

Mirror, mirror, on the wall.....
I've heard myself make every one of those same protests before. Glad you shined a light on that little dark corner.

Georgia said...

I can see I've been doing a lot of this. Thanks, Evan.

Yasmin said...

Wonderful insight Mr.Evan.One has to practice everyday"Not my will but thine be done".
Remove self love, self will and self justification and adamant of error as Mary baker Eddy says.
Thanks for your guidance everyday.

Yasmin said...

Wonderful insight Mr.Evan.One has to practice everyday"Not my will but thine be done".
Remove self love, self will and self justification and adamant of error as Mary baker Eddy says.
Thanks for your guidance everyday.

Anonymous said...

Some days I don't see how God could be in charge of anything and answering prayer. There is so much hunger and suffering and helplessness in the world. Sometimes it seems easy to be grateful because we have so much in this country, but the rest of the world is not half so fortunate. And I wonder where God is in all of this. I wonder why he lets suffering go on. I wonder how we can say that God is all in all when we honestly look on the state of human affairs.

evan said...

To anon above,
It's a big question for many, How can God let the suffering continue..." The answer lies in understanding that God is not in the suffering, and God is not behind it. And God has given us a way out of it through Christ's leadership.

Jesus Christ came to lead us out of suffering, and he mentally and spiritually led the way to Spirit. He said, "Follow me." He didn't hang around on earth forever trying to fix every material problem. He led the way out of earthly suffering to Spirit.

We find God in Spirit, not in matter. When we look into matter for hope, we find despair. When we look into Spirit for hope, we find eternal life. The only way out of suffering for humanity is to truly turn to Spirit for all good.

As we grow in spiritual understanding, the material suffering lessens, we find God, and we find heaven--in Spirit. We each have an obligation to help our neighbors around the world find their freedom from suffering too. As we all work together and collectively live more spiritual lives, the greed, disease and anarchy that cause global suffering will lessen and the world will become a better place to live for everyone. But ultimately we'll all find ourselves in heaven where we've left the material concept behind and have wholeheartedly accepted life in Spirit, which is where true life has been all along.

Emily said...

Evan, your timing is always good, but this was just dazzling.

My experiences this week revealed a great deal of ego-worship, as you put it, in my prayers for a friend struggling with a claim of illness. Her life seemed to be in danger at one point, and I found myself caught up in this false sense that I was somehow letting her down because I couldn't see through this error and recognize her perfection.

In the midst of my near-despair over the situation, the thought came to me very clearly: Calm down, child. You just love her, and I'll take it from here.

Needless to say, her condition seems to have improved dramatically since then.

Love is all it really takes to break the mesmerism that clouds our vision of another, isn't it? When we take the focus off our own perceptions and concentrate our energies on love, recognition of Truth will just naturally follow.

Anonymous said...

Sensational Evan - thanks! I've been working on the issue of control this week and your fresh perspective on "ego worship" has really helped. Cheers

Anonymous said...

How can we get that sense of God's love, God's presence, God's power, when we are just NOT getting it?

evan said...

To anon above,
How do we get a sense of God's presence? God's presence is not in a thing, it's not in a mortal, it's not in your bank account, coming tomorrow or lost yesterday. God's presence IS Love. Look for evidence of it all around...in a neighbor's smile, birds singing, an inspired piece of prose, a job well done, a friend's helping hand...in your own ability to go help someone. Live Love and you find it.

Anonymous said...

Or, indeed, in a boggers careful response.Thanks!

Anonymous said...

well I would hope any response was careful!

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