What is Prayer and What Does It Mean For You? | Rev. John Riley

Prayer! Everyone say it. Prayer! Together: Prayer. Yeah, okay, so how many of you got kind of, a little itchy? Thank you! Yeah, we sometimes, we get a little itchy. When you think about that word “prayer”, what does it mean to you? Anybody? Gratitude! Wonderful. Thank you, Sherri. Faith! Thank you, Christine. Presence, forgiveness. You’re all good Unity students.

Sometimes, though, when we hear that word “prayer”, it reminds us of that word that we learned when we were kids. It reminds us of that idea that we had when we were kids. Anyone hear that prayer “Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep …”? In our society, we have this idea of prayer as being this thing that we’re praying to God out there to help us with something, to fix something in the world. My favorite example of that is “Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz. My friends all have Teslas”, so give me an eco-friendly Mercedes Benz, if you will. I don’t know if those exist. But you see, that’s one kind of prayer, where it’s a beseeching prayer, it’s an asking prayer, it’s a praying to something that’s out there, hoping that that something out there will make something different in here or in my world.

A Different Approach to Prayer

Now, in Unity, we take a different approach to prayer. There are beseeching prayers, there are prayers of gratitude, there is contemplative prayer, which is very similar to the silence. There is affirmative prayer, which Unity practices. And in affirmative prayer, we’re not asking for something “out there” to do something for us or get something to us. Rather, we’re affirming the truth of the power that’s within us to move forward, that’s within us to heal, that’s within us to have a healthy relationship, that’s within us to connect with all love, life, and wisdom.

Now, in Unity, Charles Fillmore defined prayer as the highest form of mind action. So, think about that for a moment. Mind action, that’s our thinking. That’s the things that we think and we say and we do. That’s the activity of this brain thing that’s going on. And the highest form of that consciousness is the activity of prayer.

Now, so often for us, we’re coming at it from a different perspective. We’re either at the rock bottom and we’re trying to lift ourselves up so our consciousness is anything other than that highest state of consciousness within us. It could be at the lowest state, but at that lowest state comes the letting go. So, even at that state, you can achieve that high mind action when we let go. 

So, as we move into this talk, what I would like you to do is to practice the idea of first emptying your cup of what you think prayer is, of just letting it go so that we can open ourselves to potentially a new possibility, a new understanding within us. Can you do that for me? Raise your hands if you feel comfortable with that. Great. Almost everyone. That’s really good. I can’t see you at home but I’m sure you’re raising your hands out there too.

So, as we empty our cup about this idea of prayer let us look at it from a new perspective. It’s really about raising our consciousness. We had a quote last week from – I believe it was Corinthians? – but the quote was “In all things, pray always and in all things be grateful”. Pray always. Pray always and in all things be grateful. That doesn’t mean that we’re always going away and being in the silence all the time, but it means we’re having that higher consciousness. So prayer is really about raising our consciousness, first and foremost. That’s the first step in it.

And then we were going to practice that, and look at it today as a method of prayer, is how we looked at these last five weeks and apply that to a prayer practice.

A Prayer Practice

Now, I say a prayer practice because there’s no wrong way to pray. Unity has their five-step prayer practice or an affirmative prayer practice, and other people have their prayer practices. And for the people who use them, it works. But there is no real one way to pray. All we’re doing is raising our consciousness to that level.

Now, what I have found to be very effective is Unity’s affirmative way to pray. And so, what we do – the first step is to empty our cup. Whenever we have a problem, whenever we have a concern, whenever we have a goal or something that we’re trying to achieve, whatever it is that’s in our life that we’re getting hung up on or we want some assistance or we want some help with, anything that we’re trying to accomplish, first empty your cup about it. Here is the situation in our lives. Empty your cup about it. So that you can be filled up with new possibilities. 

The second step of course is to celebrate the divine in all things, to celebrate the divine here and present now. In Unity we teach that God is everywhere present and within you like the ocean is within a wave. So celebrate that presence. Celebrate that activity of Spirit, that energy of Spirit as it flows as the ocean has currents that flow underneath it, that flow within it. That is the current of Spirit. Celebrate that flow. That is the second step, to just be in it. 

The third step is to know and start to identify yourself with it, start to identify the I AM-ness that is within you. The I AM, that higher consciousness that is within you that begins to be lifted up when we identify ourselves because if God is everywhere present, in, through and as you, the Spirit is the activity of your life that flows through you, then you are it. That is the truth of who you are. That is your higher consciousness. And we may look at it from that perspective of consciousness, of ideas, of thoughts, of being our higher self, our better self, of being aware of those things. That is the I AM-ness and we can live from that everyday. 

So, we empty our cup, celebrate the divine, we identify with our I AM-ness. And then comes the realization. Then comes the affirmative prayer treatment. Then comes because we’ve raised our consciousness to the highest form of mind action and then we apply a truth principle. In Unity we apply affirmative principles and say I am one with the divine flow of life, love and wisdom. I am one, spiritually whole, in this moment. We are focused less so much about the Mercedes-Benz at this point right. It’s more about the being-ness. It’s about how I’m showing up. And in that realization, that’s what we can express into the world and then after that we give thanks. We say thank you, Spirit. Thank you, universe. Thank you, God. Whatever term you want to use, we give thanks. In that thanks, we give thanks for, not for the thing appearing in our lives but for the consciousness of God, for the consciousness of Spirit. 

Alignment with Spirit

So, in prayer we are — one of my favourite quotes is by Eric Butterworth where he says, “there is no way God can answer your prayers except by changing your consciousness and God cannot change your consciousness”. Only you can do that by becoming in alignment with Spirit. And that is what Unity prayer is all about, becoming in alignment with that Spirit.

Oswald Chamber once said “God does not exist to answer our prayers, but by our prayers become to discern the mind of God.” By our prayers we come to discern that higher consciousness of who we’ve come here to be. We’ve come to discern what’s ours to do in any given situation. We receive that inspiration just by becoming open and willing to listen.

So, we’re going to try this in a moment and as Emilie Cady said, the reason we’re going to try this and what she says about it in her book Lessons and Truth. Emilie Cady says “we go apart to get still. That new life, new inspiration, new power of thought, new supply from the fountainhead they flow in. And then we come forth to shed it on those around us that they too may be uplifted.” 

The Benefits of Prayer

So, what is the benefit? More peace. More joy. Less stress. Fewer upsets and when we are upset the time it takes to recover is shortened. There are so many benefits of sinking into this idea of affirmative prayer. You may call it something else. By any other name, it’s fine, because the words aren’t really all that important. What you call it, what you say, when you call and talk about it during your prayers really aren’t that important. What’s important is the emotional energy that you put into it. What is important is the frequency in which you’re vibrating and resonating at when you are praying, when you are meditating. That’s the important part. When we talk about the highest mind action, that’s when our frequency is at its highest. When we are there then we apply our truth, and we express life into the world, and this can be done at any point in time. Certainly, the practice is to practice this daily, to take time in the silence, to take time in meditation. Meditation for me is that practice of getting into emptying my cup, relaxing. Meditation is that practice of being in God until I reach that point of silence where it just is. I’m not contemplating anymore; I’m not thinking about it anymore. I’m just in it. Realizing my I AM-ness in it. From that higher consciousness, whatever we think and say and do from that point on is how we experience our life. 

So, if you go into prayer and you are practicing your meditation and affirmative prayers and you come out of it and the first thing you do is start complaining about everyone else and “Why hasn’t this come true yet? I have been praying for you and you haven’t changed”. Huh, well, that is what you are affirming. That is where your energy is going, back into the problem. So, we step away from the problem and step into that consciousness of Spirit. 

So, think about something you have been contemplating. What is it that has been on your mind? What has been frustrating you, or what has been driving you? What are you trying to accomplish? What are you trying to fix? There is something in our lives that just maybe doesn’t feel right or you are striving for a goal and you are really excited about it and you want to keep going. Whatever that is, just bring that to mind for a moment. Now, empty your cup about it. Don’t worry about the stories. Don’t worry about the “if only they would”, “they should”. Just empty all of those away. Become present to Spirit. Become present to that inner resource that is always flowing, that life, love and wisdom that flows constantly through you, that breath that is breathing you. As the Daily Word said, “The breath of the almighty.” Breathe in you. Think about, become aware of your oneness of that presence and as you do, begin to generate that feeling of knowingness, of knowing your oneness and knowing your experience of that, of feeling that energy vitalizing you, flowing through you, radiating from you, then expressing out into the world. 

Shifting Consciousness

As we see our consciousness has shifted so that we are in a place where we can more easily be a part of whatever that upset is. We can more effectively be a part of whatever that goal is. We can live into that moment more fully and experience life more fully because we are coming from it from a state and a consciousness of life, love and wisdom, of knowing God in every moment of the day, of praying every moment of the day because we are living from that consciousness. When we get knocked down, it’s okay. Just come back. Empty your cup. “Oh, there is my upset. I am going to empty that cup and I’m going to go back.” Be present to God in this situation, in all things. Raise our consciousness back up. Move forward. 

Let’s go to our affirmation. I am going to read our affirmation and then invite you to affirm it with me. When you affirm it, don’t get tripped up by the words but rather really feel the intention that is behind it. Feel that energy, that of Spirit moving in, through and as you. 

Recognizing the divine all around me, I raise my conscious awareness of the I AM within. I align my thoughts, words, and actions with God.

Would you affirm that with me? Together:

Recognizing the divine all around me, I raise my conscious awareness of the I AM within. I align my thoughts, words, and actions with God. 

And so it is. 

As we begin to apply this principle in our lives, we will begin, you will begin to feel the experience of it. You will be feeling more gratitude. You will be experiencing more forgiveness. You will be feeling more a sense of peace and joy. You will be able to see the effect of it in the world, the effect that you have on the world. 

Prayer is more than just asking for stuff. Real prayer for me, as Unity teaches it, is shifting our consciousness on a daily basis so that we are aligned with Spirit and expressing that into the world. And as we do so we raise the consciousness of humanity, we make a difference in the world. 

Prayer is living day to day at the frequency of Spirit. And so everyday, let us pray, in every way always.