When I was younger, I was quite lost when it came to prayer and/or meditation. Maybe even a little intimidated by hearing about prayer. My prayers had usually been “God, get me out of this…..(fill in the blanks)… and I will never do it again.” He would get me out of it and I would chump him or he wouldn’t get me out and I believe that God had chumped me. This was a constant power battle between me and my Higher Power. The main point was that it was a selfish plea to make me feel better about myself after whatever I had just done that was probably horribly wrong in the first place. It was always about poor little, self-centered me.
The Spiritual program of AA, of course, had an answer in Step 11. “Praying only for the knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry it out.” We have talked here before about “Fake it ‘till you make it” and so that is just what I did. Long, drawn out prayers asking for mercy or help for a long list of transgressions and/or people were instantly shrunk into the few words of the 11th step. “God thank you for today’s sobriety and thank you for the knowledge of your will for me and the power to carry it out.” Thanking in advance is Affirmative Prayer, which we learn about in our Spiritual studies. Bingo, my life immediately started to get much better. I had not known how to pray without it sounding stilted and fake until I read Emmett Fox. He was the Spiritual Advisor for Bill W. and Bob, and he said “Every thought is a prayer!” Now, that can be both energizing and fear inducing. “Now I’ve gotta even clean up my thoughts?”
What is Affirmative Prayer mentioned earlier? We hear from Dr. Ernest Holmes, the founder of The Science of Mind, that Affirmative Prayer is when we pray, we should pray believing. What a concept! It is based on the principle of oneness – there is no separation between you and Spirit or God, or call It whatever you wish. This is not the stereotypical form of prayer in which people are found making demands, pleas, or begging to a distant, far-off God who seemingly may or may not answer! Earlier we recalled Emmet Fox’s observation that every thought is a prayer. I now explore the most powerful portion of my entire being – my thoughts.
By praying affirmatively, we are able to change the state of our thoughts so that we recognize the attributes of God. We unify ourselves with those attributes. We realize that our desired outcome is at hand. Then we give thanks, and let God take over. This is combining the old AA adages of KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid) and Let Go and Let God! Hence, I say, this is a very simple program for very complicated folks. I can now breathe and let my Higher Power do His work. When I do this I AM Happy, Joyous, and Free. You can be, too, if you KISS and Let Go and Let God!