A different way to pray

instead of asking for favors

Hey there, 👋

Today I want to talk to you about a new way to pray.

This might be helpful for you if you have tried to pray before but found it not helpful (like me for 20+ years).

On the train to Warsaw, Polish Countryside.

After religion class, 2007

One day my mom, who was also my religion teacher, invited me to pray.

So I went upstairs into my bedroom and asked God for things like candy and toys. When I did not immediately receive them, I decided God was probably fake. And that prayer was a silly thing that silly people do.

But then last year my girlfriend broke up with me and it was painful.

And so I tried to pray again. And read the bible. And new forms of meditation. And even one session of therapy (on her recommendation 😂).

Some of these things were more helpful than others (I will never invest in therapy again because it is a perverted incentive model– if you are healed the therapist goes out of business lol). Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.

And despite moving past the break up and having a banner year on paper:

• hit my income goals from when I started online business

• traveled through Europe and America

• had great friends

by the end of this year, I noticed my general state was negative and dissatisfied.

So when I went to see my parents over the holidays I shared this with my dad. As you can imagine, he was concerned. He recommended I start a gratitude list. List out three things every evening that I am grateful for like my health and family. I did and it was helpful.

Bu then I listened to this book called Gespräche mit Gott (Conversations with God) and finally appreciated the power of gratitude and prayer.

A new way to look at prayer with gratitude

Everyone tells you to feel gratitude.

But this book gave me a reason why it is so powerful and I want to share it with you now.

In short, the book talks about how the big illusion for most people is an illusion of scarcity. And in fact, when you pray to God with wishes you are implying scarcity.

For example, if you ask God for happiness, your language presupposes that you do not have it (otherwise you could not ask for it).

Try right now and notice the feeling of lack. 😂

Instead, the book recommends you pray in the form of Dankbarkeit (gratitude).

The reason why this is important is because the author claims God is always with you you often just don’t listen to him. And I believe this is true. If you have full access to God or if you opened up to his message at all time, you would always know the best move to make.

Because it would be the Truth.

So instead of asking God for anything, the solution is to thank God for what you already have but have overlooked.

For example, try this:

If you feel you are struggling with clarity around your career, relationship or anything else, you can thank God for giving you clarity, instead of asking. Because this presupposes that the clarity already exists around you through God. And you simply need to open up to it’s existence.

Even if it feels weird that you “don’t already have clarity,” I have so far found this to be effective.

It’s a form of abundance mindset.

I find this a much more empowering and helpful way to pray.

This is the first time I’m sharing the idea with anyone else so I’m curious what you think. Please let me know below or reply to this email.

There’s a bunch of other good ideas in this book, but for now I will leave you with this main golden nugget that may be helpful for you:

1. The main human illusion is one of scarcity and helplessness

2. The truth is God is always abundant and accessible but we shut him out

3. The solution is to pray through gratitude instead of wishes

4. Because this presupposes the existence of that which you are grateful for

I hope this is helpful.

At a minimum I encourage you to give it a try once. What do you have to lose? :)

Thank you for reading.