"The most
important thing you can do during the course of the day is to pray."
Joe
Coyhis Stockbridge-Munsee
Prayer
is the raising of the heart and mind to God--and in this sense it includes
meditation. How may we go about it? And how does it fit in with
meditation? Prayer, as commonly understood, is a petition to God. Having opened
our channel as best we can, we try to ask for those right things of which
we and others are in the greatest need. And we think that the whole range of
our needs is well defined by that part of Step Eleven which says:
". . . knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry
that out." A request for this fits in any part of our day.
In the morning we think of the hours to come.
Perhaps we think of our day's work and the chances it may afford us to be
useful and helpful, or of some special problem that it may bring. Possibly
today will see a continuation of a serious and as yet unresolved problem left
over from yesterday. Our immediate temptation will be to ask for specific
solutions to specific problems, and for the ability to help other people as we
have already thought they should be helped. In that case, we are asking God to
do it our way. Therefore, we ought to
consider each request carefully to see what its real merit is. Even so, when
making specific requests, it will be well to add to each one of them this
qualification: ". . . if it be Thy will." We ask simply that
throughout the day God place in us the best understanding of His will that we
can have for that day, and that we be given the grace by which we may carry it
out.
Twelve
Steps & Twelve Traditions pg. 102
Great
Spirit teach us how to pray and give us strength.