Prayer... Why and How?

[David Davidovich]

The latter part of James 5:16 says: "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." Therefore, could someone who believes that they understand why and how prayer is effective, please explain to me how this works? Thank you.

 

[Jimmy]

The latter part of James 5:16 says: "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." Therefore, could someone who believes that they understand why and how prayer is effective, please explain to me how this works? Thank you.

It’s a mindset. If you think negative all the time chances are you’ll be miserable.

 

[David Davidovich]

It’s a mindset. If you think negative all the time chances are you’ll be miserable.

That makes sense. It kind of sounds like mind over matter.

 

[Hermit Philosopher]

Prayer should narrow your focus, broaden your humility, alter your self-perspective and that of the circumstances of your prayer.

Humbly,
Hermit

 

[RestlessSoul]

The purpose of prayer is to open a channel to God; or if you prefer, to effect a conscious connection with the infinite and the divine. Among the rewards are greater serenity, clarity of mind, relief from mental and physical suffering.

 

[RestlessSoul]

That makes sense. It kind of sounds like mind over matter.

Even if the benefits of prayer and meditation are auto-suggestive, the result of self hypnosis, there is still every good reason to develop the practice as part of our every day lives. Without prayer, I would not personally be able to cope with the burden of being human.

 

[sun rise]

Some people pray mechanically with nothing behind it. Some pray as a magic ritual to evoke a desired result. Some people's prayer is surrender to the Divine. Some "practice the presence of God" as the small book I once read discussed. Some "pray" by being as kind and loving as they are able to be.

The OP quote to me is a statement that those who are described as "righteous" refers to those who have attained a nearness to the Divine and understand the true meaning of prayer and when they pray, however they pray, they are aligning themselves with Divinity and the Divine wish and will.

 

[David Davidovich]

Prayer should narrow your focus, broaden your humility, alter your self-perspective and that of the circumstances of your prayer.

Humbly,
Hermit

Right. That also sounds like mind over matter. And interestingly, this 4-minute YouTube video seems to demonstrate that our thoughts and our moods and our attitudes are a lot more effective than we actually realize.

Click here (not sure what is going on with the forum's media feature)

 

[David Davidovich]

The purpose of prayer is to open a channel to God; or if you prefer, to effect a conscious connection with the infinite and the divine. Among the rewards are greater serenity, clarity of mind, relief from mental and physical suffering.

I was wondering: Does this God or this 'infinite and divine' communicate back to us?

 

[David Davidovich]

Even if the benefits of prayer and meditation are auto-suggestive, the result of self hypnosis, there is still every good reason to develop the practice as part of our every day lives. Without prayer, I would not personally be able to cope with the burden of being human.

Thank you for sharing that. However, for me, I am at a place in my life where I feel as if I would be talking to no one and would be imagining someone being on the other end.

 

[David Davidovich]

The OP quote to me is a statement that those who are described as "righteous" refers to those who have attained a nearness to the Divine and understand the true meaning of prayer and when they pray, however they pray, they are aligning themselves with Divinity and the Divine wish and will.

But do "righteous" people really know that, or are they just using their imagination? And if they really actually know that, then how do they know that?

 

[RestlessSoul]

Thank you for sharing that. However, for me, I am at a place in my life where I feel as if I would be talking to no one and would be imagining someone being on the other end.

Everyone has doubts, including, I should imagine, the most religious or spiritual of people. For me personally, this is no reason not to pray, even if it feels like my prayer is just my voice crying in the wilderness. There’s a quote from Bill Wilson which comes to my mind when my faith wavers;

“Believe more deeply. Hold your face up to the light, even though for the moment, you do not see.”

 

[Valjean]

The Bible says prayer should be a private communication, done "in a closet." I believe it says that God will not hear public prayer.

 

[sun rise]

But do "righteous" people really know that, or are they just using their imagination? And if they really actually know that, then how do they know that?

People have a great capacity for deluding themselves. But the truly righteous are not deluded. Most of us and I include myself have hearts covered in illusion, in "Plato's cave". The sense is of someone outside on a sunny day holding an umbrella. When the veils of illusion fall away, when the "umbrella" is lowered, the warmth of the sun is directly felt.

I once wrote about a "taste" that I had:

The Prisoner

From the unseen
a wispy wave
of light
emerges.

Curving round,
it touches my heart,
surrounds and
penetrates it.

Suddenly
my heart leaps
toward the light...

only to fall back.

A sigh emerges
from the cage...

still trapped.

The jail break
foiled by the
most skillful jailer:

myself.

But
there's a slight smile:
the prisoner notices
the cage is a wee bit
thinner.

The hope candle
burns in the
darkness...

next time.

 

[Windwalker]

But do "righteous" people really know that, or are they just using their imagination? And if they really actually know that, then how do they know that?

It's known because it is experienced. And furthermore, it produces tangible visible changes or effects. The quality of life experienced is radically changed, and everything done in that life has tangible and lasting differences in the material world. There is a saying that "Imagination becomes reality". This is very true.

Imagination, or inspiration is what opens us to the possible beyond the seen. It is what has created civilization. It is what moves us beyond our mere animalistic impulses. It is what moves us beyond our isolated and separated sense of self, into Awakening, or connection with the Divine. It inspires us towards action, through visualization. And if that visualization is of Ultimate Good, that has an tangilbe, life-giving energy that is connected to all living things. So "prayer" in that sense is "upward" or towards positivity, which then transforms that perception of reality into life-affirming, and transforming power.

The opposite is also true. If we imagine ourselves as isolated, and disconnected, or visualize things like paying back others through our anger, that is imagining negative, life-denying energy. And that to becomes a real, lived, experienced reality, through things like broken relationship, ill-health physically, and generally a path towards dissolution and death. So in both cases, "imagination becomes reality.".

 

[Brickjectivity]

The latter part of James 5:16 says: "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." Therefore, could someone who believes that they understand why and how prayer is effective, please explain to me how this works? Thank you.

This part of James is somewhat elusive. He shows a tendency to be alliterative, but he doesn't explain to what he alludes. In this case it is difficult to understand for sure what he means by 'Sick'. One possibility is that he believes sickness is brought on by sin, but another possibility is that he is alluding to the 'Rich people' earlier in the chapter. But by 'Rich people' he again may not be talking about wealth. Just about everything James says alludes to the laws of Moses somewhere and in some way. When he talks about wealth he is likely alluding to the wealth of the Torah celebrated in Psalms as being worth more than gold. When he talks about 'Wages' he is really getting very allegorical perhaps -- or he could literally be writing to some rich people that keep cheating their workers. Its hard to tell! Understanding James is difficult because of usages like these. He is writing to people he knows personally, and he seems to be trying to save paper.

There is a lot that James doesn't explain, but its beauty is that it is short and has some special nuggets like 3:9-10 "9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God's likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be." James is part of a picture which is already incomplete for those of us who have only the canon to survive on. He can be very helpful and gives some good advice, but he is also easily misunderstood by readers.

 

[Brickjectivity]

So the prayer... He mentions the prayer of Elijah, so right there we have a problem. Elijah's prayers are never fully described in canon. Sometimes it seems as if Elijah gives orders rather than prayers. Elisha, too, has strange ways of praying such as laying on top of a dead person and breathing into them.