Pray First: Don’t Wait ’Til the 11th Hour to Ask for Divine Intervention
How asking for help up-front can make your life easier
Why do we wait ’til the world is crashing in before we call on God? No matter your religion or spiritual path, I’m wagering you can relate.
Some years ago I was chewing my mental cud at work, ruminating on how to solve a particular problem. A colleague of mine entered the room wearing a t-shirt that said, “Pray First,” when suddenly it hit me.
I felt metaphorically slapped in the face by Heaven. How many times in my life had the idea of going to God first simply slipped my mind?
Instead, like so many people, I’d run the gamut of possible ways to solve a problem. I’d put in a great effort and pull out all the stops. Finally, when things just weren’t working out and I felt at the end of my rope, I’d internally call out in desperation for Divine intervention of some kind — any kind, just so long as it would “fix” the things that I couldn’t.
I was so struck by the utter simplicity of such an epically wise statement that I went home that day and posted a sign on my wall using plain white paper and tape that said, “Pray First, no matter what the problem!”
I’m still working on practicing that creed.
If I pray first, it doesn’t mean I then sit back and do nothing and expect answers from Heaven to fall out of the sky. It means that at the outset, I’ve handed over the perceived problem to a Higher Source, who knows far more about what’s really up than I do.
That means that as I now set about doing whatever I can to solve things, I’ve already made conscious contact with the Divine regarding the issue. I’ve opened up my mind and clarified that Heaven is working with me on the perfect resolve.
When I pray first, I’m more likely to be receptive to guidance. I’m more likely to notice when signs, signals, and potential solutions show up in my path because I’ve already activated the channels of communication with “On High.”
Why on earth would anyone want to struggle alone when we could have all-knowing, all-loving intelligence on our side the whole way through?
Recently I was engaged with a spiritual study group in a neighboring town, and we considered what life might be like if each of us literally turned inward to a Higher Source for guidance on absolutely everything, every step of the way.
Sound a bit too radical? I understand. Believe me, I do.
But if we don’t at least shoot for something radical, we end up with flimsy spiritual backbones and watered-down convictions. The idea is to go-for-broke, so at the very least our half-baked spiritual devotion gets more cooked.
I confessed to the group that I had not been living that way and to my surprise, so did everyone else. The comment came back, “Nobody’s doing that,” and yet that is exactly what we were told to do in the particular course of study we were engaged in. I looked around the room at whom I considered to be spiritual veterans 20–30 years my senior, yet no one had considered to even try to take the teaching at its word.
The Saint Frances’s of the world are rare indeed!
Why does it seem so dang hard to give ongoing attention to our higher minds?
In the new-age, there is always the next greatest version of a teaching in the marketplace, or some new way to stand on your head in order to bring on a true “God experience.” Don’t get me wrong, I love crystals, green tea, and organic food. But the new-age marketplace is saturated with new versions of the same old principles.
For humanity to evolve into greater wisdom individually and collectively, we don’t need more spiritual doctrines, enlightened gurus, or new religions. What we need is increased devotion to the greater good, self-discipline, and real commitment to whatever path we’re on.
Years ago, Helen Schucman, the scribe of a form of spiritual psychotherapy called A Course in Miracles, was told while praying to ask for guidance even on what clothes to wear that day. Can you imagine the conscious connection each of us would have if we were speaking to the Divine that often?
Perhaps that’s exactly why Schucman was instructed to ask for spiritual guidance on such trivial matters. At least she’d be asking. She’d be checking in all day no matter how ridiculous it seemed.
One thing that is made clear in the text Schucman scribed, is that if we really want to wake up Spiritually, we must put all our faith in God and seek guidance every step of the way with all situations — without exception. That sounds an awful lot like praying first if you ask me and it also seems a lot like praying without ceasing — that little bit of text from Thessalonians 5:17 that’s made many a reader scratch their head.
I can just imagine church-goers all over the world, stumbling over that sentence with, “Huh? How on Earth can I pray without ceasing? How’s that even possible?
Well, what about this? What if we put God first and pray without ceasing, by asking for the Divine’s input each step of the way? That’s almost too practical and simple to be right, but my intuitive brain thinks it’s right enough to do the job.
What job?
The job of opening up a closed fist, to use a Buddhist term, in order to receive and experience life fully in the moment — free of resistance, free of suffering, and free of judgments about how things ought to turn out.
When we relax around an issue and open up to life, our heart rate slows and we begin to synchronize with the world around us in a positive way. We ease off trying to control the outcomes. Solutions begin to show up in new ways, with new angles of insight that renew our understanding and vigor for life.
It’s as simple as an on-going conversation with the God of your own understanding.
Can it really be that simple? I think it is.
The more we pray, the more we open up and allow life to flow through us. The more we relax and open up, the more God appears in the world around us — through other people, through situations, through the miraculous resolve of apparent problems — and usually with very little effort on our part.
It works this way because we’ve already put in the effort to pray, to put our attention on the Divine, to remember first cause in all circumstances.
By praying first, we recognize the real power in our lives, and we set ourselves up to win because we know God is in the outcome — no matter what it is or what form it takes.
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