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| Try Prayer Power |
Try Prayer Power
You are dealing with the most tremendous power in the world when you pray. The secret of prayer is to find the process that will most effectively open your mind humbly to God. Any method through which you can stimulate the power of God to flow into your mind is legitimate.
An illustration of a scientific use of prayer is the experience of a man who opened a small business—as he characterized it, “a little hole in the wall” in New York City— years ago. He had one employee. In a few years they moved into a larger room and then into extensive quarters. It became a very successful operation.
This man’s method of business as he described it was “to fill the little hole in the wall with optimistic prayers and thoughts.” He declared that hard work, positive thinking, fair dealing, right treatment of people and the proper kind of praying always get results. This man worked out his own simple formula for solving his problems through prayer power. The formula is: Prayerize, Picturize, Actualize.
By “prayerize” my friend meant a daily system of creative prayer. When a problem arose, he talked it over with God simply and directly in prayer. Moreover, he conceived of God as being with him in his office, in his home, on the street, in his automobile, always nearby as a partner. He took seriously the Biblical injunction to “pray without ceasing.” He interpreted it as meaning that he should go about every day discussing with God in a natural, normal manner the questions that had to be dealt with. He did not often kneel to offer his prayers but would, for example, say to God, “What will I do about this, Lord?” or “Give me a fresh insight on this, Lord.”
The second point in his formula of creative prayer is to “picturize.” The basic factor in physics is force. The basic factor in psychology is the realizable wish. When either failure or success is picturized it strongly tends to actualize in terms equivalent to the mental image pictured.
To assure something worthwhile happening, first pray about it and test it according to God’s will. Then print a picture of it on your mind as happening, holding the picture firmly in consciousness. Continue to surrender the picture to God’s will—that is to say, put the matter in God’s hands—and follow God’s guidance. Work hard and intelligently, thus doing your part to achieve success. Practice believing and continue to hold the picture in your thoughts. Do this and you will be astonished at the strange ways in which the picture comes to pass. In this manner the picture “actualizes.” That which you have “prayerized” and “picturized” “actualizes” according to the pattern of your basic realizable wish when conditioned by invoking God’s power upon it, and if, moreover, you give fully of yourself to its realization.
I have practiced this prayer method and find great power in it. Others have likewise reported that it released creative power into their experience.For example, a woman discovered that her husband was drifting from her. Theirs had been a happy marriage, but the wife had become preoccupied in social affairs and the husband had gotten busy in his work. Before they knew it, the close, old-time companionship was lost. One day she discovered his interest in another woman. She became hysterical. She consulted her minister, who instructed her how to pray and to “picturize.” He also advised her to hold a mental image of the restoration of the old-time companionship, to visualize the goodness in her husband, and to picture a restored harmony between the two of them. She was to hold this picture with faith.
About this time her husband informed her that he wanted a divorce. She had conquered hysteria and calmly replied that she was willing if he wanted it, but suggested a deferral of the decision: “If at the end of ninety days you still want a divorce, I will cooperate.” He gave her a quizzical look, for he had expected an outburst.
You are dealing with the most tremendous power in the world when you pray. The secret of prayer is to find the process that will most effectively open your mind humbly to God. Any method through which you can stimulate the power of God to flow into your mind is legitimate.
An illustration of a scientific use of prayer is the experience of a man who opened a small business—as he characterized it, “a little hole in the wall” in New York City— years ago. He had one employee. In a few years they moved into a larger room and then into extensive quarters. It became a very successful operation.
This man’s method of business as he described it was “to fill the little hole in the wall with optimistic prayers and thoughts.” He declared that hard work, positive thinking, fair dealing, right treatment of people and the proper kind of praying always get results. This man worked out his own simple formula for solving his problems through prayer power. The formula is: Prayerize, Picturize, Actualize.
By “prayerize” my friend meant a daily system of creative prayer. When a problem arose, he talked it over with God simply and directly in prayer. Moreover, he conceived of God as being with him in his office, in his home, on the street, in his automobile, always nearby as a partner. He took seriously the Biblical injunction to “pray without ceasing.” He interpreted it as meaning that he should go about every day discussing with God in a natural, normal manner the questions that had to be dealt with. He did not often kneel to offer his prayers but would, for example, say to God, “What will I do about this, Lord?” or “Give me a fresh insight on this, Lord.”
The second point in his formula of creative prayer is to “picturize.” The basic factor in physics is force. The basic factor in psychology is the realizable wish. When either failure or success is picturized it strongly tends to actualize in terms equivalent to the mental image pictured.
To assure something worthwhile happening, first pray about it and test it according to God’s will. Then print a picture of it on your mind as happening, holding the picture firmly in consciousness. Continue to surrender the picture to God’s will—that is to say, put the matter in God’s hands—and follow God’s guidance. Work hard and intelligently, thus doing your part to achieve success. Practice believing and continue to hold the picture in your thoughts. Do this and you will be astonished at the strange ways in which the picture comes to pass. In this manner the picture “actualizes.” That which you have “prayerized” and “picturized” “actualizes” according to the pattern of your basic realizable wish when conditioned by invoking God’s power upon it, and if, moreover, you give fully of yourself to its realization.
I have practiced this prayer method and find great power in it. Others have likewise reported that it released creative power into their experience.For example, a woman discovered that her husband was drifting from her. Theirs had been a happy marriage, but the wife had become preoccupied in social affairs and the husband had gotten busy in his work. Before they knew it, the close, old-time companionship was lost. One day she discovered his interest in another woman. She became hysterical. She consulted her minister, who instructed her how to pray and to “picturize.” He also advised her to hold a mental image of the restoration of the old-time companionship, to visualize the goodness in her husband, and to picture a restored harmony between the two of them. She was to hold this picture with faith.
About this time her husband informed her that he wanted a divorce. She had conquered hysteria and calmly replied that she was willing if he wanted it, but suggested a deferral of the decision: “If at the end of ninety days you still want a divorce, I will cooperate.” He gave her a quizzical look, for he had expected an outburst.
Night after night he went out, and night after night she sat at home, but she pictured him in his old chair. She even pictured him drying the dishes as he did when they were first married. She visualized the two of them playing golf together as they once had.
She maintained this picture with steady faith, and one night there he actually sat in his chair. Occasionally he would be gone, but more and more nights he sat in his chair.
Then one Saturday afternoon he asked, “What do you say to a game of golf?” The days went by pleasantly until she realized that the ninetieth day had arrived, so that evening she said quietly, “Bill, this is the ninetieth day.”
“What do you mean,” he asked, puzzled, “the ninetieth day?”
“Why, don’t you remember? We agreed to wait ninety days to settle that divorce matter and this is the day.”
He looked at her for a moment, then hidden behind his paper turned a page, saying, “Don’t be silly. I couldn’t possibly get along without you. Where did you ever get the idea I was going to leave you?”
I have known many other people who have successfully applied this technique. When sincerely and intelligently brought into situations, this has produced such excellent results that it must be regarded as an extraordinarily efficient method of prayer. People who take this method seriously and actually use it get astonishing results.
She maintained this picture with steady faith, and one night there he actually sat in his chair. Occasionally he would be gone, but more and more nights he sat in his chair.
Then one Saturday afternoon he asked, “What do you say to a game of golf?” The days went by pleasantly until she realized that the ninetieth day had arrived, so that evening she said quietly, “Bill, this is the ninetieth day.”
“What do you mean,” he asked, puzzled, “the ninetieth day?”
“Why, don’t you remember? We agreed to wait ninety days to settle that divorce matter and this is the day.”
He looked at her for a moment, then hidden behind his paper turned a page, saying, “Don’t be silly. I couldn’t possibly get along without you. Where did you ever get the idea I was going to leave you?”
I have known many other people who have successfully applied this technique. When sincerely and intelligently brought into situations, this has produced such excellent results that it must be regarded as an extraordinarily efficient method of prayer. People who take this method seriously and actually use it get astonishing results.
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