Prayer

[anagogy]

I am curious what role prayer plays in the lives of seekers on the forum. Do you pray? What does prayer mean to you? To whom or what do you pray? What are the effects it has had in your spiritual life?

I find prayer useful as well. I try to pray to the creator often.

The praying is mostly for the individual that is praying's sake, because the creator already knows what you need before you ask for it (whether it was guidance, or some change in environment or self).

Thus, from my perspective, the value in prayer is often, primarily, in the solace it gives to the individual that prays. Why aren't all prayers answered? Because even the creator cannot, or will not, take away your own power to create your own reality. However prayer often soothes the individual who does it. Belief in an omnipotent surrogate (a creator) who is working on your behalf helps intellectually justify the surrender of 'autonomous involvement'. Or, in other words, it allows you to step out of your self, or ego. As one surrenders the little self to the wisdom of the greater self (as a little child might to their parent "become as little children"), this helps balance the ultimate mismatch of energies streaming through the energy centers that is distorting one's reality in a separating, or negative way. This, in turn, allows intelligent infinity to flow through you, more freely, perfecting your reality moment by moment, allowing 'what has been asked for' both vibrationally, preferentially, and even unconsciously, before the prayer was even verbalized or uttered to the creator in the first place.

tl;dr: It helps release resistance to allowing the free flow of intelligent infinity through you. It allows the creator to work through you. The infinite understanding present within these energies naturally brings energies that were out of alignment, or less consonant with unity, into a greater degree of alignment with unity.

I sometimes like to end my prayers with, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. In earth, as it is in heaven. Amen."