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Teach Us To Pray
Foreword
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[Teach Us To Pray]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
When Jesus' disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray
He warned them against making a display of their praying in
order to be seen of men. They should retire to their "inner
chamber" and pray to the Father who sees in secret and
rewards openly. Then He said, "After this manner therefore
pray." The Lord's Prayer was given as a sample: not to be
followed literally. It is a petition according to the
American revision; but according to Fenton's translation it
is a series of affirmations, as follows:
"Our Father in the Heavens; Your Name must be being
hallowed;
"Your kingdom must be being restored;
"Your will must be being done, both in Heaven and upon the
Earth.
"Give us to-day our to-morrow's bread;
"And forgive us our faults, as we forgive those offending
us, for You would not lead us into temptation, but deliver
us from its evil."
As in all matters where we seek divine help we are free to
use any words we choose or no words at all.
"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed."
Prayer in man is a conscious expression of the upward trend
of nature found everywhere. So every impulse or desire of
the soul for life, love, light, is a prayer.
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Eliphaz repeated a prayer formula when he said, "Thou shalt
also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee."
Jesus put the same idea in these words: "Whatsoever ye
shall ask in my name, that will I do."
All growth and unfoldment from atom to sun is based upon
this law of soul urge.
What you earnestly desire and persistently affirm will be
yours, if you "faint not."
When we frame our desires in sound words and place them
before our indwelling Lord, we are using intelligently the
supreme law of God in bringing into manifestation that
which He has implanted in us.
A prayer without desire in it, a prayer without sincerity
in it, a prayer without soul in it, a prayer without Spirit
in it is a fruitless prayer.
But above all practice the presence of God in prayer.
Divine Mind has given us all potentialities, in prayer we
recognize it as the source of these, and with a right
understanding of our relation to it our soul grows great
with infinite capacity, all potentiality. "With God all
things are possible." "All things whatsoever the Father
hath are mine."
We have been so persistently taught that prayer consists in
asking God for some human need that we have lost sight of
our spiritual identity and have become a race of praying
beggars. God is Spirit in whom we "live, and move, and have
our being." We are the offspring of this Spirit and can
make conscious contact with it by turning our attention
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away from material things and thinking about Spirit. As we
practice this kind of prayer our innate Spirit showers its
life energies into our conscious mind and a great soul
expansion follows.
Jesus described this in the following words:
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner
chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who
is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall
recompense thee."
This "inner chamber" of the soul has been variously named
by Scripture writers. It is called the "secret place of the
Most High" and the "holy of holies," and Jesus named it
"the Father . . . in me" and "the kingdom of God . . .
within you." What we need to know above all is that there
is a place within our soul where we can consciously meet
God and receive a flood of new life into not only our mind
but also our body.
This understanding shows us that prayer is more than asking
God for help in this physical world; it is in its highest
sense the opening up in our soul of an innate spiritual
umbilical cord that connects us with the Holy Mother, from
whom we can receive a perpetual flow of life. This is the
beginning of eternal life for both soul and body, the
essential teaching of Jesus, which He demonstrated in
overcoming death.
We have earnestly sought to know and tell others how to
pray, and this book is our very best exposition of the
subject. Language has not yet been invented to tell all the
wonders that we have found since we
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began opening our minds to the Spirit in prayer. We have
discovered enough to convince us that the body can be so
charged with spiritual life through prayer that it will
overcome death, as promised by Jesus Christ.
Do not enlarge the defects of this book until they darken
its truths, but accept the urge to begin the practice of
prayer and through it make contact with the source of your
being. Thus you will prove that, as Job wisely taught,
"There is a spirit in man,
And the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding."
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[Teach Us To Pray]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
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