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Teach Us To Pray
Be Strong in the Lord
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[Teach Us To Pray]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
I praise and give thanks that I am strong in the Lord and
in the power of His might.
I praise and give thanks for the plenty, visible and
invisible, that I feel and see everywhere.
TO BE "strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might"
means that we are seeking strength and power from sources
other than the physical. Food and exercises are the usual
sources of bodily vigor. We are not discussing mental
vigor, which is gained by combining diet, discipline, and
idealism.
A study of Truth reveals that words based upon the
authority of Spirit develop dynamic force. The difference
between the force of a word based in physical things and
one based in spiritual things is the difference between the
effect one gets from contact with a wire carrying a light
and a wire carrying a heavy voltage.
The time will come when scientific metaphysics will measure
mathematically the currents of energy
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emanating from a brain charged with material ideas and one
charged with spiritual ideas. At present the science of
mind is quite primitive. We are, like Franklin, flying a
few kites and making cursory excursions into a field of
energy the control of which will eventually change our
whole world.
We have found however that very definite changes occur in
our mind and body when we practice concentration in the
silence. This means that when we want to gain spiritual
power we get still mentally and physically and turn our
attention within. On our first entering this "silence" we
close our eyes and ears, and with our concentrated
attention fixed on an imaginary point within, we repeat
silently any set of words that carry a spiritual idea. With
practice we can make the inner connection without closing
the eyes.
In His directions for effective prayer Jesus told His
disciples to go into the secret place and close the door,
there to pray to the Father in secret, and the response
would appear outwardly. Jesus sometimes prayed all night.
He taught persistence in prayer. We find that contact with
the supermind--which Jesus named the Father--is sometimes
quickly made in concentrated prayer; then again our mind is
slow to see the inner light. The relation of our mind to
creative Mind may be compared to the relation of a radio
receiving set to a broadcasting station. As we must tune
our radio set so that it will pick up waves from the proper
station, so we have to acquire the ability to attune our
mind to Divine
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Mind, so we may learn by spiritual understanding the true
ideas that exist eternally in Divine Mind.
Every word has a quality that sympathetically relates it to
an idea innate in the mind of man, and when the word is
released it radiates an energy that contracts or expands
the body cells and through them external nature. For
example, words of praise, gratitude, or thanksgiving
expand, set free, and in every way radiate energy. Words of
failure or impotence congest energy and cause the cells to
crowd together, making nerves trembly and bones brittle.
When the thoughts are lifted up to the contemplation of our
all-pervading and all-powerful Spirit Father and our voices
ring out in words of praise and thanksgiving, the withered
hands and shackled feet are freed, the walls of negation
are shattered, and we step forth into a new consciousness
of life.
To those in the clutches of adverse words it seems a
travesty to praise and give thanks to the God of strength
and power, but thousands of those who have endured poverty
and sickness for years find that their prison doors open
when they praise and give thanks, like Paul and Silas, as
related in the 16th chapter of Acts. They were praying and
singing hymns to God when suddenly there was a great
earthquake, all the prisoners' chains were loosened, and
Paul and Silas stepped forth free men.
So you will find that you can be freed from all the prison
cells of mind's blind thinking by lifting up your voice and
heart in songs of praise and thanksgiving to the God of
freedom, light, and life.
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[Teach Us To Pray]
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