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.