If you asked several people what prayer is you would
receive many different answers reflecting diverse practices and beliefs. Though there
seems to be no absolute meaning for the word nor one common practice among all people,
Jesus taught universal principles of prayer which work for everyone in every age and in
all places. He taught that God is Principle–eternal and unchanging–and not a
"tricky God" as Charles Fillmore once said. As Principle, God is the unlimited,
definite and exact foundation of the universe and everything within it. While the
principle of music expresses through sound and mathematics through numbers, God as
Principle expresses through ideas. In Jesus’ language, Aramaic, slotha is the
word for prayer which means "to incline, turn towards or trap" and also the idea
"to tune in" as one would tune a radio. In prayer, then, we tune in to capture
an idea in consciousness.
The connecting link between
God and man is Mind, a union which is not a matter of the right words, outer forms or even
specific postures. Prayer makes the connection through concentrated, directed and
spiritually oriented thinking. Since God is unchanging Principle, any act of prayer cannot
change God but it does change you. It conditions your consciousness so that you are
receptive to divine ideas which form and shape your health, guidance, prosperity and
fulfillment.
When Jesus said, "Pray
then like this: Our Father which art in heaven..., (Matthew 6:9-13) what we have come to
know as the "Lord’s Prayer" was born. He was not giving us the
prayer but a pattern or framework for prayer. Though all of its elements can be
found in the Judaism of his time, seen as an organic whole, it is a collection of
affirmative statements which reflects Jesus’ spiritual understanding. It provides us
with a formula for soul development which defines our relation to God and basic Truths of
our existence. Tertullian, a church writer from around 160 C.E., called it "the
epitome of the whole Gospel" and I completely agree. If we lost the whole Bible
except for these few verses, we would still have the essence of both the Hebrew Scriptures
and the New Testament. Let’s take a closer look at the words which for many are all
too familiar.
Four Attunements to Mind (Mt 6:9-10)
Jesus’ model prayer
begins with four statements which remind us of our true relation with God or Mind and help
us tune in to or align with God-Mind.
1. Our Father…Universal Father, the true parent and
creator of everyone
Oliver Wendell Holmes once
said, "My religion is summed up in the first two words." These two words remind
us of our continual oneness with God and with each other–a right beginning for
prayer. God is the Creator or Father of mankind. We cannot become children of God
because we already are. Our work is to recognize and express the divine attributes
inherited from our true parent. Early in his spiritual quest, Charles Fillmore affirmed,
"God is my father and I am his child," to establish in his consciousness the
realization of this divine relationship. Emmet Fox, the well-known writer and lecturer,
believed that most human problems would disappear if we would meditate on Omnipotent
Wisdom as the living, loving Father of all.
2. Who art in heaven… We live within Omnipresence.
In Aramaic, shmaya
means "heaven, universe, cosmos" which conveys the idea that God is
Omnipresence–throughout the entire cosmos or universe. There is no place we can go
where we are separate from our "Father." No matter how things appear or what
experiences we may have, God is there. If God is "in heaven," then it is implied
that we are "on earth." God is omnipresent, invisible Mind; we are the visible
manifestation or out-picturing of God’s idea of itself. God is Cause; we are the
expression. This attunement reminds us that God is not "out there somewhere,"
but right where we are. We are never separate from the life, love, substance or
intelligence that God is.
3. Hallowed be thy name… God’s nature is absolute
good.
In ancient Israel to know or
understand a person’s name was the same as knowing the person himself. A name is the
nature of something. In Aramaic qadash means, "holy, sacred, or set
apart." Translated into English it became "hallowed" which comes from Old
English meaning, "holy, whole, wholesome." The nature of God is absolute good
without any opposite. If God is absolute good, then all that follows must also be good.
God is not the author of sickness, lack, conflict or evil and cannot cause or send us
anything but good. "Does a spring pour forth from the same opening fresh water and
brackish?" (James 3:11) Remember, right where something else seems to be making its
presence known, there is only God–there is only good. No matter how human
consciousness has distorted or perverted a divine idea, good is there. It is important for
us to remember this and not add thought energy to the problem or condition by thinking
that God sends difficulties, sickness or even death. Put the power where it
belongs–in God as absolute good. We have free will and can use a perfectly good idea
in a completely destructive way. The choice is ours. Habakkuk says to God, "Thou who
art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on wrong." (1:13) In The
Golden Key, Emmet Fox reminds us not to think about a problem—think about God
instead.
(Continued next month.)