At Gilboa and in the Decapolis

144:2.1“John in­deed taught you a sim­ple form of prayer: ‘O Fa­ther, cleanse us from sin, show us your glory, re­veal your love, and let your spirit sanc­tify our hearts forever­more, Amen!’ He taught this prayer that you might have some­thing to teach the mul­ti­tude. He did not in­tend that you should use such a set and for­mal pe­ti­tion as the ex­pres­sion of your own souls in prayer.

144:2.2“Prayer is en­tirely a per­sonal and spon­ta­neous ex­pres­sion of the at­ti­tude of the soul to­ward the spirit; prayer should be the com­mu­nion of son­ship and the ex­pres­sion of fel­low­ship. Prayer, when in­dited by the spirit, leads to co-op­er­a­tive spir­i­tual prog­ress. The ideal prayer is a form of spir­i­tual com­mu­nion which leads to in­tel­li­gent wor­ship. True pray­ing is the sin­cere at­ti­tude of reach­ing heav­en­ward for the at­tain­ment of your ide­als.

144:2.3“Prayer is the breath of the soul and should lead you to be per­sis­tent in your at­tempt to as­cer­tain the Fa­ther’s will. If any one of you has a neigh­bor, and you go to him at mid­night and say: ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine on a jour­ney has come to see me, and I have noth­ing to set be­fore him’; and if your neigh­bor an­swers, ‘Trou­ble me not, for the door is now shut and the chil­dren and I are in bed; there­fore I can­not rise and give you bread,’ you will per­sist, ex­plain­ing that your friend hungers, and that you have no food to of­fer him. I say to you, though your neigh­bor will not rise and give you bread be­cause he is your friend, yet be­cause of your im­por­tu­nity he will get up and give you as many loaves as you need. If, then, per­sis­tence will win fa­vors even from mor­tal man, how much more will your per­sis­tence in the spirit win the bread of life for you from the will­ing hands of the Fa­ther in heaven. Again I say to you: Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. For ev­ery one who asks re­ceives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door of sal­va­tion will be opened.

144:2.4“Which of you who is a fa­ther, if his son asks un­wisely, would hes­i­tate to give in ac­cor­dance with pa­ren­tal wis­dom rather than in the terms of the son’s faulty pe­ti­tion? If the child needs a loaf, will you give him a stone just be­cause he un­wisely asks for it? If your son needs a fish, will you give him a wa­ter­snake just be­cause it may chance to come up in the net with the fish and the child fool­ishly asks for the ser­pent? If you, then, be­ing mor­tal and fi­nite, know how to an­swer prayer and give good and ap­pro­pri­ate gifts to your chil­dren, how much more shall your heav­enly Fa­ther give the spirit and many ad­di­tional bless­ings to those who ask him? Men ought al­ways to pray and not be­come dis­cour­aged.

144:2.5“Let me tell you the story of a cer­tain judge who lived in a wicked city. This judge feared not God nor had re­spect for man. Now there was a needy widow in that city who came re­peat­edly to this un­just judge, say­ing, ‘Pro­tect me from my ad­ver­sary.’ For some time he would not give ear to her, but pres­ently he said to him­self: ‘Though I fear not God nor have re­gard for man, yet be­cause this widow ceases not to trou­ble me, I will vin­di­cate her lest she wear me out by her con­tin­ual com­ing.’ These sto­ries I tell you to en­cour­age you to per­sist in pray­ing and not to in­ti­mate that your pe­ti­tions will change the just and righ­teous Fa­ther above. Your per­sis­tence, how­ever, is not to win fa­vor with God but to change your earth at­ti­tude and to en­large your soul’s ca­pac­ity for spirit re­cep­tiv­ity.

144:2.6“But when you pray, you ex­er­cise so lit­tle faith. Gen­uine faith will re­move moun­tains of ma­te­rial dif­fi­culty which may chance to lie in the path of soul ex­pan­sion and spir­i­tual prog­ress.”