THE PROVINCE OF PRAYER

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Prayer, unless in liaison with the will and actions

of the personal spiritual forces and material supervisors of a realm, can have no direct effect upon one’s physical environment. While there is a very definite limit to the province of the petitions of prayer, such limits do not equally apply to the faith of those who pray.

Prayer is not a technique for curing real and organic

diseases, but it has contributed enormously

to the enjoyment of abundant health and to the

cure of numerous mental, emotional, and nervous

ailments. And even in actual bacterial disease,

prayer has many times added to the efficacy

of other remedial procedures. Prayer has turned

many an irritable and complaining invalid

into a paragon of patience and made him

an inspiration to all other human sufferers.

No matter how difficult it may be to reconcile

the scientific doubtings regarding the efficacy

of prayer with the ever-present urge to

seek help and guidance from divine sources,

never forget that the sincere prayer of faith

is a mighty force for the promotion of personal

happiness, individual self-control, social harmony,

moral progress, and spiritual attainment.

Prayer, even as a purely human practice,

a dialogue with one’s alter ego, constitutes a technique of the most efficient approach to the realization of those reserve powers of human nature which are stored and conserved in the unconscious realms of the human mind. Prayer is a sound psychologic practice, aside from its religious implications and its spiritual significance. It is a fact of human experience that most persons, if sufficiently hard pressed, will pray in some way to some source of help.

Do not be so slothful as to ask God to solve

your difficulties, but never hesitate to ask him

for wisdom and spiritual strength to guide

and sustain you while you yourself resolutely

and courageously attack the problems at hand.

Prayer has been an indispensable factor

in the progress and preservation of religious

civilization, and it still has mighty contributions

to make to the further enhancement and

spiritualization of society if those who pray

will only do so in the light of scientific facts,

philosophic wisdom, intellectual sincerity, and

spiritual faith. Pray as Jesus taught his disciples —

honestly, unselfishly, with fairness,

and without doubting.

But the efficacy of prayer in the personal

spiritual experience of the one who prays

is in no way dependent on such a worshiper’s

intellectual understanding, philosophic acumen,

social level, cultural status, or other mortal

acquirements. The psychic and spiritual

concomitants of the prayer of faith are

immediate, personal, and experiential.

There is no other technique whereby every man,

regardless of all other mortal accomplishments,

can so effectively and immediately approach

the threshold of that realm wherein he can

communicate with his Maker,

where the creature contacts with the reality

of the Creator, with the indwelling

Thought Adjuster.

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From THE URANTIA BOOK

Part III, 91, 6
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