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Even if you are not a religious person by
nature or training--even if you are an out-and-out
skeptic--prayer can help you much more than you believe,
for it is a practical thing. I mean that
prayer fulfills these three very basic psychological needs
which all people share, whether they believe in God or
not:
1. Prayer helps us to put into words exactly what
is troubling us. It is almost impossible to deal
with a problem while it remains vague and nebulous.
Praying, in a way, is very much like writing our problems
down on paper. If we ask help for a problem--even
from God--we must put it into words.
2. Prayer gives us a sense of sharing our
burdens, of not being alone. Few of us are so strong
that we can bear our heaviest burdens, our most agonizing
troubles, all by ourselves. Sometimes our worries
are of so intimate a nature that we cannot discuss them
even with our closest relatives or friends. Then
prayer is the answer. Any psychiatrist will tell us
that when we are pent-up and tense, and in an agony of
spirit, it is therapeutically good to tell someone our
troubles. When we can't tell anyone else--we can
always tell God.
3. Prayer puts into force an active principal of doing.
It's a first step toward action.
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I doubt if
anyone can pray for some fulfillment, day after day,
without benefiting from it--in other words, without taking
some steps to bring it to pass.
The world-famous
scientist, Dr. Alexis Carrel, said, "Prayer is the
most powerful form of energy one can generate."
So why not make use of it? Call it God or Allah or
Spirit--why quarrel with definitions as long as the
mysterious powers of nature take us in hand?
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