From The Infinite Way 1954 Letters
By Joel Goldsmith
Chapter 4
PRAYER
Part 1 of 3
Prayer is our contact, our means of communion with God through which harmony is revealed.
God is, that we know. God is peace, harmony and supply. God is safety and security. God is our rock, our high tower, or dwelling place – God is.
Notwithstanding the is-ness and all-ness of God, the world is filled with discords, inharmonies, sin, disease, lack, envy, jealousy, malice, hatred and misrepresentation. All forms of negative influences and conditions seem to pervade the world and we are all innocent victims of them. Again and again the question is asked: If God is good, if God is life, if God is love, how can these things be: And the answer is this: as long as a sense of separation exists between us and that which we call God, these discords must inevitably be, and will be, until we find our way back to our Father’s House – to God consciousness.
All of human existence is a journey – a journey from sense to soul – the Prodigal’s experience from the depths, to his return to his Father’s House. This is our journey, and our goal is God. How do we reach God? How do we attain our goal? The answer is always the same – through prayer. Prayer never fails.
Some of you may question that statement, “prayer never fails.” That which we knew as prayer in our orthodox, Christian, Jewish, Mohammedan, Hindu days is not prayer at all. That which we have been taught from childhood, and that which is taught even today in most churches really is not prayer. These were the beginning steps on the subject of prayer, and were perhaps the only language we could understand at the moment. No doubt, every prayer from “Now I lay me down to sleep” on up to “The Lord’s Prayer,” have been helpful steps toward the realization of true prayer.
What, then is true prayer? What is the prayer that leads us unto God? What is the nature of the prayer that reveals our health and supply, our companionship, and the harmonies of every day living? We know that God is the goal, and our work is to attain that goal. If prayer is the way, what is prayer? What is the prayer of faith, of which James speaks, that results in demonstration?
End part 1