Prayer was not even part of my thinking when I was introduced to the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Meditation was something that was just something that I read about that “those people” did. It contained snakes coming out of baskets and a flute playing in the background. Upon entering AA, I was quickly advised that this was not a religious program but it was deeply spiritual. I, of course, thought that they were only playing with semantics and that there was no difference.
I very quickly was able to see that there was something really different about many of these AAs. The difference was that, before, they had been just as miserable and undesirable as I was. Now they were happy, joyous, and free. They had a spark of life about them that did not exist before. I was willing to go to any lengths to get what they were showing me.
These AAs introduced me to the teachings of Emmet Fox. Dr. Fox had been the Spiritual Advisor for Bill W. and many of the first members of the then new AA. His Sermon on the Mount was used as the first Big Book. This was before Bill wrote the one that we still use. I read The Sermon on the Mount numerous times and started giving it as a gift along with the Big Book. Several of the books, letters, and essays that Dr. Fox wrote said the same thing about prayer. “Every thought is a prayer.”
WOW! That statement smacked me upside the head and filled me with both apprehension and awe. Apprehension came when I thought of the many obscene, violent, negative thoughts that I had on a regular basis. I wondered if I thought of doing serious harm to someone, if I were praying for it to happen. And if so, what kind of rotten so and so did that make me? This was very quickly overruled by the feeling of awe over knowing that I could pray for something or someone by just thinking and/or saying the thought in my own language. I didn’t have to use thees, thys, and so called religious talk that I had learned of in my youth.
If every thought is a prayer, I can pray meaningfully for anything just by thinking of it. This led to me talking with my Higher Power. I now choose to call It God. Just as if He were a friend sitting next to me in the car or living room or porch. Step 11 tells us: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” To do this, I talk on a regular basis to my Higher Power as mentioned above just like talking with a friend.
In my stage of meditation, I believe that this happens when I get the guidance that I requested from God. It always comes, whether or not I like the response. I say a prayer for guidance. This is then followed by an “instinct” or “inspiration” which I once shrugged off. The thing that I am comfortable with by using these tools is, that if I am comfortable with going where I am being guided, I am doing God’s will. If I am apprehensive at all, I stop and reassess. Why stop? Because it just might not be His will.
So, to me, the answer to the question posed in the topic is that each and every thought that I have is a prayer. That is why it is so important for me to watch my thoughts closely. And then act accordingly. Very simple but not always easy!
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