Declarative vs. Supplicative Prayer

I grew up in a family where prayer was a daily thing. We prayed every evening around the supper table, holding hands and everything. My parents were wise to teach me about the power of gratitude, making a habit of being grateful for every morsel of food, in good times and bad. However, I never saw prayer as an effective means of altering reality. It was cool as a tool to shift the attention toward higher consciousness through gratitude and praise, but there was never any evidence a divine god was actually compelled to act on our behalf. This is because any time we tried to alter reality through prayer, we did it with supplication-- that is, with begging.

Many people add "outs" to their prayers, saying: "If it is your will, Lord, straighten out my finances." Think about that for a second. If there's an almighty creator of Heaven and Earth, and somehow it's within her holy will that your finances get fixed, then so shall it be. I'm not very impressed with your god if she needs a human to prod her and remind her, like she's forgetful and absent-minded. On the other hand, if it's not her will that you draw the "Bank Fault In Your Favor" Chance Card, then there's no point praying for her divine intervention. So either way, this prayer is pretty pointless.

When we add an "out", saying "if it fits your divine plan", we create a vacuous and empty prayer, and the only real point is to feel spiritual. I admit-- when I speak an "if you please" prayer, it makes me feel very spiritual, like I'm "in on" the bigger plan. That's the whole point of these useless prayers, to make the speaker feel wise and above-it-all. And if that's your goal, fine, but don't expect the prayer to have any real impact on whether your baseball team wins.

Another type of supplication is the "holy pact". I remember my first meet when I was in track team as a kid. I sooo wanted to perform well. Knelt there waiting for the gun to start the race, I prayed: "Lord, let me win this match and I'll always be a Christian!" This kind of prayer is absolutely ridiculous. If the Omnipotent Architect of the World really wanted me to follow the "Christian Lifestyle", he could instantly reprogram my brain and make me do whatever he wanted. There's no reason for any all-powerful deity to make some petty deal with me.

Supplication in general is pretty weak. God isn't boredly flicking around the keys to reality, absently wishing, "if only some mortal would give me an idea what to do today!"

But there is an alternative: Declarative Prayer. This is when you declare, rather than request. Herein lies the real power to flex reality. Rather than asking for your finances to be straightened out, declare: "I'm blessed with wealth and abundance!" This will be transfinitely more powerful, because it creates a belief directly. The true power in any appeal to a higher power is the sowing of belief. It's like Jesus said, "with Faith the size of a mustard seed, you will move mountains." The only thing any religious entreaty really gives you is an increase in faith. That faith is weak and impotent when it's surrounded by begging and pleading and bargaining and "if it fits your plan"-ing.

I wrote an entire article about the power of making declarations, and how they can be used to guide and shape reality. Read my article titled "Positive Affirmations".