Gloria to God:
Dear Father, Sandra wrote: "Do you think the following would be of interest to HEAVEN readers:
"What is prayer? What benefits or power or influence does it have? Is a prayer for a favor a clash with God's Will?"
God:
Whatever you request in prayer, your real prayer is to be connected to Me with pure flow so that your life is a prayer of giving and gratitude. The one prayer of all is to ask that you be aligned with My Will and follow it with love in your heart. People pray to Me for health, wealth, happiness, long life, but what they really pray for is an enlivened relationship with Me.
Know that I give all the time. A request is almost a formality. Your relief is in turning over to Me.
Your thoughts are powerful, but pray with your heart. Words by themselves are not prayer. Prayer is for you, not for Me. Prayer recognizes the wholeness of life.
It is a delicate thing, prayer. Some of My children beg, plead, demand, order, raise their voices and fists to Me, and consider that telling Me what to do is prayer.
Here are some prayers helpful to all the readers here:
"Dear Father, please help me to accept Your Will. Help me to stop fighting You. Help me to know that You know better than I do. Help me to forgive You for what I see as Your trespasses. Help Me to love and give freedom. Help me to know that my life does not have to be the way I think. Help me to serve You. Help me to help you serve others. Help me to stop putting myself first. Help me to be free. Help others to be free. Help me to loose the world from my grip. Help me to be generous to myself. Help me to find joy in this world. Help me to multiply joy. Help me to love. Help me find peace. Help me give peace. Help me to put aside my smallnesses. Help me to love You. Help me to feel Your presence. Help me to share You. Help me to know how to be happy."
Pray beneath what you want. There is something more there than what you ask for. My children often pray for continuation of what they have, and do not now enjoy what they have. So pray to enjoy the treasures you already have. Pray to appreciate. Pray to give thanks. Make your prayers gifts.
Pray that you give and find love. Pray that you do not hold on to love. Pray that you give freedom. Pray that you can acknowledge My love. Make your prayers offerings to Me. Love Me, love yourself.
Some of my children distrust Me, disown Me, deter Me. Pray that you pray to Me in love. Pray that you know My love.
The power of prayer is focus on love. Will your prayer change My Will?
That comes to the last part of the question. What is meant by favor? There is something about the word favor. It implies something personal and suggests owing. Personal and owing or being owed are away from prayer. It is like you nudge me with your elbow, and say: "Do me a favor, God. Slip me a few bucks. Don't let it rain today. Do make rain today. Get me an A on my social studies test. Make me thin and beautiful. Do me this favor and change the laws of the universe." And then you take the perceived outcome personally, as though I let you down.
I favor all of you every day of your life. Write down all the ways you know you are favored. Address it to Me. I will start a general list for you:
God, I have my health, my mind, the use of my limbs.
I have loved ones.
I have a home I live in and a car to drive.
I have a computer that opens the world to me.
I have air to breathe and freedom.
Add more to the list of what you have wanted and do have, and then your list will increase.
I would like to go back to the world clash. We are on the same side. Clash implies opposition.
Some of My children do feel Me opposed to them, as though I am an opponent who duels with them.
Now I talk to my beloved Sandra personally, and all will listen to this.
In your sweetness and love, you want the clock to stop. You want your husband restored to full health. You see your husband as existing only within his body, not that that is how you wish to see, but that is how you do. Just about everyone becomes attached to the body, their own and others. I tell you that your husband is not a body. You hear My words, but accepting that is hard for My children. This earthly life is dear, but it is only a part of the whole.
Your husband is on earth now. Enjoy your life with him now. Enjoy your life now.
Let go the responsibility and hand it over to Me. It is not yours. Do you hold yourself responsible for another's life? Live your own, dear Sandra.
Now I pray to you:
I pray that you know My love right in front of you.
I pray that you remove limits from your perception.
I pray that you look beyond the surface.
I pray that you look to Me.
I pray that you take Me into your heart.
I pray that you pledge freedom to Me.
I pray that you find trust in Me, and give Me yours.
I pray you find present joy in My creation.
I pray that you empty your heart of fear, pain, and trepidation. Give them to Me. I know what to do with them.
I pray that you offer Me blessings.
I pray that you come to Me.
I pray that you love Me.
I pray that you talk to Me everyday as a friend to a friend.
I pray that you talk to Me.
I pray that you hear Me.
I pray that you love yourself.
I pray that you know your worth. I know you are worthy. Now I pray you know it.
I pray that you absolve yourself.
I pray that you love Me with all your heart.
I pray that you know My love.
I pray that you receive it.
I pray that you love Me without conditions.
I pray that you welcome Me.
I pray that you give to yourself.
I pray that you expand your vision.
I pray that you accept that life is eternal, and that this earthly life is only one of My many mansions.
I pray you start a new life today with renewed heart.
I pray that you talk to Me every day.
I pray that you know you are loved, rain or shine, Sandra.
My love is not dependent on this or that.
May you feel My love resting on you.
May you know My love knows no bounds.
May you wrap yourself in My love.
May you embrace My love.
May you not take present life too seriously.
May you smile at Me today.
I look into your eyes this moment and bless you. Hold that blessing like a candle before you.
Come into the comfort of My arms and grace, and be My beloved, Sandra of joy.
Gloria to Mother Divine:
Dear Mother Divine, what would you like to say about prayer?
Mother Divine:
It is an exchange. It is not a one-way thing. The praying person asks, and God gives the answer that He sees to give with His great love and vision. He gives more. He always give you more. Whether you like His answer or not, He answers you. He does not ignore. He answers with love, and He does not make mistakes.
How vastly different the human tour would be if death of the body were not seen as a tragedy. This inevitability seems to be the worst thing that can happen. If mortals could see it as a noble rite of passage, which it is, life on earth would be transformed.
Would you deny anyone the opportunity to set sail on a ship to another realm? Would you really hold someone back? Weep for joy, and not for yourself when a loved one goes to another country.
Meanwhile, enjoy the loved ones on their visit on earth.
A Course in Miracles, Epilogue in Workbook (cont.):
"You are as certain of arriving home as is the pathway of the sun laid down before it rises, after it has set, and in the half-lit hours in between. Indeed, your pathway is more certain still. For it can not be possible to change the course of those whom God has called to Him. Therefore, obey your will, and follow Him."
Gloria to God:
Dear God, when I read this, I wonder why we worry at all.
God:
I wonder too.
Gloria:
Dear God, how do I know, how does a person know, what the lesson is in something? Is it to speak up, or say nothing? Is it to persist, or let go?
God:
The lesson is always greater love. That does not mean receding, Gloria. For you, it most often means to love yourself more and speak up. When you are afraid to speak up, most certainly your lesson is to say something.
Later…
Gloria to God:
Today, dear God, Jon asked me how I know when an answer from You is finished. I said I just sense it. Sometimes I sense there is more, and I ask You if there is more, and then there is more. But, a minute after Jon and I hung up, the answer to how I know when You're done came to me.
It is: I can stop!
God:
You can always ask Me if I am finished, and I will tell you yes, or I will continue.
Gloria:
Sometimes I think it could keep going all day. That it depends on me, not You.
God:
I am talking to you all day. You could write all day. The thing is you have other things to do, so, yes, you also determine when we are done. But I release you.
You would never stop in the middle of a thought from Me. And when something is very important for Me to say, I will keep you going.
Gloria to Mother Divine:
Dear Mother Divine, what is your pleasure to say?
Mother Divine:
That I am thrilled with HEAVEN, its readers, and how you are applying yourself.
Gloria:
There is someone that I have been very good friends with for quite a few years, but for some time now I have felt something not the same. I am trying to learn to give more credit to my feelings, and I did ask her a while ago what was going on, and she said what I was picking up had to do with something else in her life and not with me. But my feeling has grown, and today she sent me a one-line unresponsive breezy note, just saying she is busy. I don't need confirmation here, dear Mother Divine; friendships change, and this one has. I'm sorry, but I'm okay with it. But maybe you want to say something.
Mother Divine:
Everything in the relative world changes. God and I do not. Rely on God and me. At one time, you felt this friend was superior to you, and she agreed, and now she knows differently, and so do you. It's hard for her to deal with the change. You will still be friends, but at a distance.