“Remember, even if prayer does not change God, it very often effects great and lasting changes in the one who prays in faith and confident expectation.”  [UB Paper 91, Section 4]

Thought Adjuster: “The above statement is well worth investigating, as so many of you are not fully grasping the transformative power of a sincere prayer.  I stress here the word ‘sincere’, as any other prayer is just hollow lip service since the one reciting is emotionally detached.

“Bottom line, if your heart and mind are not in the right place, how could your prayer be credible?  You may fool your human audience, but you will never fool nor trick the Father into giving weight to your featherlight petitions.  Not only does He fully read your mind, since He dwells within it, but He also fully detects the sincerity of your heart or the lack thereof.

“Indeed, prayer is not a bargaining chip used to manipulate God into siding with your immature views.  Rather, it is a way for you to honestly get in touch with yourself.

“Nowadays, many tormented souls ‘spill their guts’ to a mental therapist in their quest to understand their idiosyncrasies and inner workings.  During the sessions, the therapist skillfully asks leading questions, while maintaining an emotionally detached demeanor—which can be initially quite unsettling for those who came looking for advice.  Yet, by doing so, the therapist helps them come up with their own answers.

“In some way, prayer as a similar process.  By honestly articulating to the Divine the various emotions that you experience —be they joyful and hopeful, or sorrowful and painful—and their trigger situations, you obtain inner ‘enlightenment’, as you express yourself without holding anything back.  Thus doing, you are rewarded with a deep sense of peace that dispels your previous state of confusion and anguish.  This is the telltale side-effect of a sincere prayer.

“As your heart starts opening toward others, you move away from self-centered petitions and widen the scope of your prayers—including your siblings in need of support.  Your prayers become then prayers of intercession for the wellbeing of others and such prayers get the Father’s undivided attention.  They are arising from your open heart and are Love in Action, perfectly aligned with the divine modus operandi.

“Prayer is the language of the heart—a language that has to be learned.  Do not shy away from practicing it.  Your ‘prayer’ vocabulary may seem very limited to you at first, but it will quickly expand, as prayers have a momentum of their own.  Be assured that your heart will experience a powerful breakthrough, as you shift from self-deceiving mental prayers to the authentic expression of your heart.  In the end, even if your prayers are no longer directed at yourself, you will reap great personal benefits from the blooming of your heart.  You will have become a ‘prayer warrior’ to reckon with.”