Prayer, Affirmations, and Visualization

Jesus was matter-of-fact: "Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it, and nothing will be too much for you. This mountain, for instance: Just say, 'Go jump in the lake'—no shuffling or shilly-shallying—and it's as good as done. That's why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get God's everything. And when you assume the posture of prayer, remember that it's not all asking. If you have anything against someone, forgive—only then will your heavenly Father be inclined to also wipe your slate clean of sins."
~Mark 11:22 MSG

The above passage points to the importance of prayer in everyday life. Prayer is important because it focuses the mind to solve a particular problem or attain a certain goal. Prayer is the concentrating of mental energy.

When you engage in prayer, you are automatically using affirmations and visualization. Affirmations are statements you say to yourself regarding what you would like to come to pass. Visualization is the process of imagining an event of what you would like to come to pass.

Affirmations and visualization are the bedrock of many self-help programs and books. If you join a self-help program or read a self-help book, chances are that the program or book will involve affirmations or visualization.

Affirmations and visualization appear to be the key ingredients for successful living. Therefore, prayer is the key ingredient for successful living, since prayer encompasses affirmations and visualization.

What do God, a Nice Life, Obstacles, and Prayer (Focused Thought) have in common?

"We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28 HCSB).

According to this Bible verse, if you love God, then all of your circumstances will cause your life to go in a positive direction. In my opinion, loving God is following the Golden Rule and consistently praying to God - putting God first in your life.

This makes sense. Here's why.

By treating others the way you would like to be treated (the Golden Rule), you are influencing others to be nice to you. After all, people tend to be nice to people who are nice to them. The more people are nice to you, the more positive your life will be.

Though you may be nice to people, there will be some who may despise you for whatever reason. They may despise you enough to put obstacles in your path, making your life difficult. In addition to this, life naturally will put obstacles before you, because that's how life works.

This is where prayer comes in.

Whenever you are faced with enemies, obstacles, or other trials, prayer is the answer. Why? Because prayer is focused thought. And focused thought can bend and change your reality by changing your behavior.

Focused thought can take you from a bad situation to a good situation rather quickly. One moment you're here, and the next moment you're there.

Focused thought = reality.

Prayer is Imagination

"Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17 KJV).

After affirming this Bible verse, I realize the importance of using prayer throughout the day, instead of just several minutes in the morning. The more I use prayer, the more powerful the results. Therefore, I should spend my day wearing my prayer, just as I do my clothes.

When I use prayer, I am communicating with God. I begin communicating with words that eventually transform into imagination. And this imagination transforms into reality.

Given this, the key to successful prayer is imagination, since imagination creates reality. Imagination is the essence of prayer.

I use my imagination to envision how I would like to be, and wear this imagination as I do my clothes. This will inevitably cause me to become the person that exists in my imagination.

Ask by Prayer and Imagination

"And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you" (John 16:23).

Upon affirming this Bible verse, I realize that the secret to living life successfully is to ask. I realize that if you want something in life, ask for it and it is yours.

Nevertheless, you must ask in the right way to obtain what you ask for. You must ask with some degree of intensity rather than in a half-assed manner. When you ask for something via prayer, imagine that you already have it as you go about your day.

For example, if you want a brand new, red, smooth-riding Corvette automobile, every time you get into your current, old, beat-up lemon of an automobile, imagine that you are driving the brand-new, red, smooth-riding Corvette. Eventually, your imagination will become reality. Imagination equals creation.

Prayer must always be coupled with imagination for it to work. A prayer without imagination is a prayer without power and faith. If you say a prayer without imagination, you are praying in a half-assed manner. You will get no results or weak ones at best.

You have heard the adage "A picture is worth a thousand words." It is actually worth much more.

Communication and Prayer contribute to Good Health

"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16).

After affirming this, my awareness of communication and prayer regarding healing is increased. I am now aware that communication is vital to providing a harmonious workplace and home life, thereby contributing to good health. Also, I am aware that prayer is vital to providing a harmonious mind-set, thereby contributing to good health.

The communication of my faults, frustrations, and other troubles to a trusted friend is a good way of easing my mind, thereby creating a sense of equilibrium. A mind-set of equilibrium leads to good health, since stress is alleviated.

Saying a prayer for others as well as myself is a good way to keep my mind positive, thereby creating a sense of joy. A mind-set of joy leads to good health, since joy creates healthful chemical reactions within the body.

Indeed, communication and prayer contribute significantly to good health.

Prayer gives you Power over Circumstances

"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12).

After affirming this Bible verse, I feel myself being filled with power, power to direct my life in a positive direction. Having power is essential to living a successful life. It is important to have power over circumstances or else circumstances can swallow you up.

As sons of God, we need to connect to God via prayer. Just as a cell phone needs to be recharged regularly, we need to be recharged via prayer. Prayer equals power.

There is a connection between mind and body as well as among mind, behavior, and circumstances. Since prayer alters the mind, the other factors also get altered: body, behavior, and circumstances.

That is what mind over matter means - mind over body, behavior, and circumstances.

Prayer Thoughts, The Placebo Effect, and The Law Of Attraction

What exactly is prayer? How does it work? Does it work at all?

There have been studies done on prayer to determine its effectiveness. But the problem with testing prayer lies in defining the parameters of it clearly enough to provide consistency. Given the lack of defined prayer parameters, the results of prayer have been mixed when tested in the laboratory.

What exactly is prayer? I think prayer is simply the communication of a person to a Higher Power. And this communication is usually in the form of praise, petition, or gratitude. In conducting studies, researchers should focus on examining the petition prayers, since these prayers are more goal-directed than the other prayers, allowing these prayers to be easier to test.

How does prayer work? The workings of prayer can be explained psychologically (e.g., the relationship among thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and environments), biologically (e.g., the placebo effect), or metaphysically (e.g., the law of attraction).

In the area of psychology, researchers have proven that there is a strong relationship among thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and environments. Modern psychotherapy is based on this premise.

Modern psychotherapy attempts to change a person's thoughts about a problem, thereby changing the person's feelings about the problem, thereby changing the person's behaviors regarding the problem, finally causing the person's situation to change.

Since prayer changes the thoughts of the person praying, this psychological explanation can explain how prayer works.

In the area of biology, researchers have observed the phenomenon called the placebo effect. The placebo effect tends to occur if a person receives a drug or some other treatment, and believes that this drug or treatment is going to have a positive effect, even though the drug or treatment is actually useless.

The reason why the person feels better after taking the useless drug is due to chemical/hormonal changes that occur within his body from merely believing that he's better. Therefore, a so-called "pain-relieving" pill will actually relieve his headache, a so-called "anti-anxiety" pill will actually calm him down, and a so-called "stimulant" pill will actually give him more energy.

Since people who pray tend to believe that prayers produce positive results, this biological explanation can explain how prayer works.

In the area of metaphysics, practitioners have spoken much about the law of attraction. The law of attraction states that like attracts like. In other words, if you consistently think positive thoughts, positive events will be attracted to you like a magnet. And if you consistently think negative thoughts, negative events will be attracted to you like a magnet.

What causes this sort of magnetism? According to the law of attraction, every thought vibrates on a particular frequency. And if you think a particular thought long enough, it's going to attract outside events that vibrate on the same frequency as the thought that you're thinking.

Since prayer involves consistently thinking particular thoughts, this metaphysical explanation can explain how prayer works.

So you see, prayer can be explained scientifically and theoretically. This article explained what prayer is and how it may work scientifically and theoretically. Since prayer has strong scientific and theoretical backing, it most likely works and it most likely works well.

In this article, I'm not denying the intervention of God or angelic beings. I do believe in God. And I believe that He does intervene in this reality. Nevertheless, discussions of God and angelic beings go beyond science and theory.

"Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy versus Prayer, Results versus Process, Scientific Studies

In cognitive behavioral therapy, the trainers of this method will oftentimes remind their apprentices to focus on the process of the method rather than the results. The reason is that the results of cognitive behavioral therapy are almost never immediate and are almost always delayed.

A practitioner of cognitive behavioral therapy can sometimes be working with a patient for months without seeing any significant improvement in the patient's depression, anxiety, anger, or whatever else the patient is being treated for. This can be frustrating for the practitioner, sometimes causing the practitioner to quit and declare that cognitive behavioral therapy doesn't work.

In fact, cognitive behavioral therapy has been proven to be one of the most effective forms of psychotherapy. There have been many scientific studies done to prove this.

Prayer is very similar to cognitive behavioral therapy, in that it induces a change in thinking, inducing a change in emotion, inducing a change in behavior, finally inducing a change in environment. Since cognitive behavioral therapy has been validated by scientific studies, prayer likewise is validated, because prayer and cognitive behavioral therapy are almost one and the same.

There have been studies that seemingly proved that prayer doesn't work. But these studies have been seriously flawed, in that they wrongly assumed that prayer is strictly a mental activity, and didn't allow for the behavioral expression of prayer in the studies.

Prayer without its corresponding behavioral expression isn't prayer at all, just as cognitive behavioral therapy without its corresponding behavioral expression isn't therapy at all.

Just like cognitive behavioral therapy, prayer tends to have delayed rather than immediate results. This has caused many practitioners of prayer to give up in frustration and declare it doesn't work.

Like the practitioners of cognitive behavioral therapy, the practitioners of prayer must focus on the process rather than the results. In focusing on the process, the results will eventually come.

This is a scientific fact!