I just read a story in one of Gregg Braden’s book about the indigenous man who prayed for rain during a tremendous drought. He used the term, “I am praying rain,” not for it, but “praying rain.”

Yes, we understand in the teaching of New Thought that we must pray as if it has already happened. This is the feeling behind Spiritual Mind Treatment. Even though we are looking the condition as a fact, we know to turn away from it and pray as if what we want is already so. We reveal the Truth of Spirit with our Word.

Too many times, we keep looking at our conditions and praying from that place. It is impossible, because by looking at them and focusing on them, we are reinforcing those things we wish were gone. We must begin where we are and pray, not that they are gone, but by focusing on what we want. And, then we must pray as if it were already so, claiming it so, feeling it so, giving gratitude. This is scientific prayer because it can be proven. Science must prove itself by declaring the invisible principle behind what we see in form and knowing the form comes from that invisible principle.

So, there is something else I want to mention. The indigenous man who Gregg spoke of did get the manifestation of rain, but it also created massive flooding and damage to the area. When Gregg asked him about this, he said that was the part of the prayer he didn’t quite understand.

Well, there is an answer and an understanding. Remember that film “Bruce Almighty” when the character of Bruce, playing God kept saying yes to everyone’s wishes? In truth, we do not know what the best thing for everyone is. We do not know that answered prayers in the way that we declare them for someone else is the best for them. When we pray for others there is a disclaimer I use. It is “for the highest Good of all,” or that “Divine right action is in place.”  Yes, to the rain, but for the highest Good of all. Yes, to the health of the participants in a traffic accident that we pass, but for Divine right action now.

There is a way to pray that focuses on what we want while leaving the Universe open to fulfill it in the perfect way for us or others. There is a perfect turning or time for everything. We can have all that we desire when we are ready for it, when become it.

After I declare my Truth, I know that everything that occurs is an answer to that Truth. Even when it doesn’t seem so, I have to trust the process and know that the outcome is already here, in the most perfect time, in the most perfect way for me or others.

I recently have been praying for a friend who is going through a serious ordeal. I always pray that just the right support and answers find this person in every moment. I pray that this person is already fully supported and comforted in all ways. Do you see the difference? If I prayed about how I thought another should feel or what I thought should happen for them, I would not be respectful of their personal journey.  When praying for others, it is not our job to lay out the plan for the unfoldment of their Good. Our only conscious thought should be that their Good is here already.

Prayer is powerful and it is scientific. It has nothing to do with religion unless you want it to. For me, it is a declaration of Good laid in the Field of unlimited potential and creation that has to take form in just the right way at just the right time. Prayer is the creation of a mold that we form with our feelings and belief in the great Creative Energy of Life that is forever creating from Itself (Us) in new and expansive ways.

I trust in the power of Scientific Prayer.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita