Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The Will of God and Prayer

"A tragic mistake that is often made by orthodox religious people is to assume that the Will of God for them is bound to be something dull and uninviting. If not positively unpleasant. Consciously or not they look upon God as a hard task-master, or a severe Puritanical parent. Too often their prayers virtually amount to something like this: ‘Please God, give me such and such a boon which I sorely need -- but I don’t suppose you will, because you won’t think it is good for me.” Needless to say, a prayer of this sort is answered as all prayers are answered, according to the faith of the subject; that is to say, the boon is not granted. The truth is that the will of God for us always means greater freedom, greater self-expression, wider newer and brighter experience; better health, greater prosperity, wider opportunity of service to others -- life more abundant."

from The Sermon on the Mount
by Emmet Fox

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