Prayer: Have You Ever Written a Prayer Letter?
Have You Ever Written a Prayer Letter?
Effective prayer helps you lay aside all cares and worries so that Mind — God — can restore wholeness in your life. “Yet, as positive as we may consciously think, speak, and act, we have challenges” (Hasbrouck).
Even the most spiritually attuned person experiences tribulation. “Sometimes the ‘tribulation’ in our lives seems to persist no matter
how faithfully we affirm Truth. When we have such challenges we may find that our repeated affirmations keep the thought of the challenge in our minds” (Hasbrouck). We find it near impossible to just “let go and let God.”
Writing a prayer letter may be the solution.
To Whom Is the Prayer Letter Addressed?
“There are two kinds of prayer letters: those written to God and those written to the higher Self or Christ of a person. Both are affirmations written in the form of a letter and ‘mailed’ in the Bible near a passage appropriate to the major concern of the letter” (Hasbrouck).
Content Matters in your Prayer Letter
How you communicate is as important as what you communicate. Here are a few guidelines to write an effective prayer letter to God:
- Acknowledge God as your personal Source for all good
- Avoid all begging, beseeching and bargaining
- Acknowledge your divine right to the good you seek
- Give thanks for its receipt
- Avoid all begging, blaming, beseeching and bargaining
“…the function of a prayer letter is to help [you] know the truth about a need, situation, or person” (Hasbrouck). In my experience, prayer letters have helped me get the energy out of me and onto paper. Often, I cannot “let go and let God” until I’ve deposited “it” on paper.
Let me also give you a few guidelines to write an effective prayer letter to the Christ of another person. This technique can help you resolve interpersonal issues with another person.
- Acknowledge God as Source for both you and the other person
- Avoid all begging, blaming, beseeching and bargaining
- Claim the divine solution to whatever problem exists between you and the other person
- Give thanks for perfect resolution in your relationship with the other person.
Three Methods for Writing Prayer Letters
Hasbrouck identifies three methods for writing prayer letters. Choose the method that best suits you.
Method A
- Write the letter carefully, being sure to say exactly what you mean to say. Feel free to rewrite the letter until you get the exact right language that captures your true desire.
- Read the letter, preferably aloud and slowly and thoughtfully, three times just before retiring. Reading it three times impresses the contents on your subconscious mind and alerts it to receive guidance from the superconscious during sleep to pass on to the conscious mind.
- Giving thanks for answered prayer, place the letter in your Bible near a passage that is appropriate for your concern and leave it there until the next night at bedtime.
- Read the letter as in step 2 every night for 3 weeks. At the end of the 3 weeks, your work is complete; however, must letters are answered before the time is up.
- At the end of the 3 weeks, you have options: you may burn the letter whether or not the good has appeared; if the good has not appeared, you may leave the letter in the Bible until it does appear or until you feel at peace about the matter. During the extra time, do not read the letter on a regular basis; let Spirit work.
Method B
- The same as in Method A.
- The same as in Method A.
- Place the letter in the Bible as in Method A, but do not reread it unless you feel strongly guided to do so.
- When you feel right about the matter, whether or not the good has appeared, remove the letter and burn it, giving thanks for answered prayer.
Method C
- The same as in Method A.
- The same as in Method A.
- Place the letter in the Bible as in Method A, giving thanks for answered prayer.
- The next morning remove the letter from the Bible and burn it, giving thanks that the matter is now in God’s hands.
What Are These Prayer Letters All About?
Prayer letters help you to remove fear, worry, anxiety, doubt, resentment…any emotion or feeling that might interfere with the easy flow of Spirit thought you.
I had an epiphany the other day while working with a client. We were discussing the following passage from Florence Scovel Shinn’s The Game of Life and How to Play It:
Man goes through many births and deaths, until he knows the truth which sets him free. He is drawn back to the earth plane through unsatisfied desire, to pay his Karmic debts, or to “fulfill his destiny.”
I realized that this time around, I am here to fulfill my destiny. I do that through my service as Senior Minister of UP Church and I also do that through our ongoing conversation here at RevSherri.com.
My “job” is to be open to the unimpeded flow of Spirit. A portion of my assignment includes helping you do the same. Writing prayer letters have helped me develop an openness to Spirit.
How I Used Prayer Letters
I have used prayer letters with great success and I strongly advocate them as a form of prayer and as a tool for opening up to Spirit. My method differs slightly from the methods Hasbrouck recommends. I kept a journal of prayer letters and I did not burn them. I also did not “mail” them in my Bible.
Every morning I would set aside 30–60 minutes to write my letter. I would sit in my bed and write my letter to God. Sometimes my letters encompassed a single page. At other times, my letters spanned several pages.
In general, I always wrote forward. I never reread any of my prayer letters.
But, even without reading my letters, I sensed that a few of my prayers had been answered. Mostly, I could say with certainty that my relationship with God had expanded.
Do Prayer Letters Work?
It wasn’t until 2006 that I discovered the magnitude of what I’d done. I had the idea to turn the entries into a book. Writing prayer letters had helped me so much that I wanted to find a way to share the experience with others and encourage them to try it.
For the first time since I began writing prayer letters, I reread the pages of my prayer journals.
As I transcribed the pages, I came across hundreds of prayers that I’d completely forgotten about, but which had been answered. The thing that struck me most was the sheer exactitude with which most of the prayers had been answered.
It was as if I’d written my life into being.
Relationships had been resolved in the exact way that I’d prayed for resolution. Challenges that I’d asked for guidance on had been received. This experience taught me that every prayer is answered.
God’s answer is always, “Yes!”
Very often our attention wanders after we have prayed and we do not notice when a prayer has been answered — especially if the answer did not arrive in our time frame.
Because I had these journals full of prayers — I wrote nearly every morning from 2002 to 2006 — I could see that it truly was done unto me according to my belief. Whatever I was bold enough to believe God for and put on paper came to pass.
Can Prayer Letters Work For You?
Give yourself a 30-day window to try writing prayer letters. If it seems like a strange way to pray, just stick with it. Set aside a definite time each day and use the letters to communicate your thoughts and feelings to God.
Other than making sure you don’t drop into begging and beseeching, do not censor yourself. Write freely and allow whatever is on your mind to find its way into your conversation.
