6. Step 3: Declaration – “I Affirm”
7. Step 4: Thanksgiving – “I Am Grateful
8. Step 5: Release – “I Let Go”
9. The Silent Step
10. Composing the Perfect Prayer
11. Step Statements
12. Affirmations
13. Starting Down Your Path to Perfect Praying
14. Composing Your Perfect Prayers
Author’s Note
About the Authors
INTRODUCTION
During a time of seemingly increased uncertainty, violence, insecurity and fear, when more and more people feel they are losing more and more control over their lives and livelihoods, many have turned to conventional or traditional religion in search of comfort, safety and security. They hope to find the sense of wholeness, meaning and well-being that religion promises. As they were taught, they often pray in a meek, needy, supplicating way to a distant, judgmental father-figure God who, depending on the virtue of the individual, may or may not deem to grant his or her request. Furthermore, many people only pray when they want some “thing” or are in desperate trouble.
For an increasing number of others, however, the concept of a traditional “God-figure” is found to be lacking, unfulfilling and even demeaning. Finding traditional prayer, in which one supplicates, pleads or cajoles ultimately unsatisfying, an increasing number of people are searching for ways to speak to and experience Spirit in more direct, self-affirming, practical and meaningful ways; to feel Spirit living, moving and having Its being in, through and as them every day.
This book can empower you to do exactly that. It is a spiritual yet simple practical guide that shows you how to easily compose and create effective prayers that, when stated with conviction and belief, trigger the appropriate universal spiritual Laws which are proven to produce amazing results.
This guide outlines the five Steps used in Affirmative Prayer; a positive, proactive, consciously directed, confident and creative statement of fact, and how you can use them to create “perfect” prayers.
Affirmative praying is not supplicating, fear-based or needy.
Where traditional prayer solicits a request to a “God-person” that is separate and “out there”, hoping for answers, Affirmative Prayer starts with the knowing that Spirit is not only the Creator and Source of all Life, It is present everywhere as well as within all Life. An Affirmative Prayer recognizes that the Universe (as an aspect and out-picturing of Spirit) always says, “Yes!” and manifests and reflects back to you what you think and say into it. Since Spirit expresses in, through and as you, it logically follows that what is true of It must therefore be true of you as well. This includes the creative power of your word, which, as Spirit in expression, is Law in the universe. Using the spiritual Laws of Cause, Attraction, Manifestation and Effect, you manifest your reality and create your experience by what you believe, how you think, and what you say, often unconsciously. Speaking your word unconsciously, day after day, often manifests what might seem like negative results, or provides results that you didn’t expect or wish for. The five Steps used in Affirmative Prayer put the spiritual Law of Mind (more on that later) into conscious, directed motion, which then manifests as specific form. The Steps transcend all spiritual beliefs, and so they can work for anyone of any spiritual tradition, religion or teaching, as well as for anyone of no particular spiritual persuasion as well.
Why? Because it is done unto you AS you believe.
Social research shows that what you believe, think and say is what shows up in your life. Perfect Praying: 5 Simple Steps That Make Prayers Work is intended to be an easy-to-use, nondenominational guide for people across the board who wish to consciously participate and become co-creators with Spirit. It puts the “positive punch” into prayer.
To quote Abe Lincoln, “I think people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” This guide allows you to “remind” with your positive, powerful SELF.
CHAPTER ONE
THE POWER OF THOUGHT
Do you pray? Even if you don’t think you do, you do. Even if you don’t believe in a God, Spirit or Higher Power, you do because every thought you think, every statement you make, and every belief you hold is a form of prayer that “answers” you back by attracting into your life or manifesting outwardly as some form of physical thing, outcome, situation, circumstance or condition. Whether you believe this or not, whether you are conscious of this or not, your word is Law in the universe!
Those of you who do pray in a more traditional manner, if even occasionally, may sometimes feel that your prayers don’t really work, or seldom the way you’d like them to. Do you often get the answers or the results you seek? If not, it may be because of the way you are praying, to an individualized, judgmental God that is out there and separate from you, to whom you are petitioning in fear, need and doubt, attempting to win his favor with contrition, promises and persuasion.
As a matter of fact, Spirit, or whatever term feels most comfortable to you, is not an individual personality separate and apart from you, but is an infinite, Intelligent Creative Principle, Power and Force that perfectly expresses and lives in, through and as you! As an expression of Spirit, what is true of It is true of you. Therefore your word, on an individual level, like Spirit’s on a universal level, is Law in the universe.
Your universe. It has power. Because of this, every statement you make or thought you have, based on your innermost beliefs, sets into motion certain spiritual Laws which manifest in one form or another. When you speak your word, whether in focused, directed prayer or through simple everyday statements, you put into motion the spiritual Laws of Cause, Attraction and Manifestation/Effect. These Laws or Principles are as real as any laws of physics, and work just as predictably, scientifically and, in a sense, as mechanically as any physical law. Every thought you have or statement you make (cause) triggers a physical or energetic reaction (attraction), which results in a physical form (manifestation) or outcome (effect).
The world of physical reality around you – and in you – is, in fact, the accumulation of an infinite number of effects created by an infinite number of underlying causes, stretching back through time. Your very life, right now, is the effect, or result, of your beliefs, thoughts, words, actions and re-actions which over time have manifested as your reality and have created your experience.
Why? Because what you believe to be true, you attract into your life. This is the Law of Attraction, and your use of it is often unconscious. This happens because the Universe is an intelligent spiritual system that does not judge or play favorites. It is neutral and impartial, giving back equally to all.
It always says “Yes!” automatically out-picturing back to you everything you think into it, positive or negative, whether you’re aware of it or not.
It should also be said, however, that although everything happens through you, seemingly unforeseen events also can, and do, sometimes impact you from the “outside”, apparently from out of left field and over which you seem to have no control. It is how you interpret, think about, respond to, and deal with these seemingly unexpected events, however, that makes the difference. What you believe, think, say and do about them determines the effect they ultimately have on your life and how they