Why doesn't it work?

It's too bad so many religions beat us up using the Christian Bible since it is a very good book with tons of wisdom. Many of us see ourselves as recovering Catholics/Baptists/Mormons (choose your brand) because the religion of our childhood used this great book to tell us we were bad, wrong, evil, sinful (choose your label here). One day we saw through this scam and reclaimed our spirituality. Too often, however, we threw away some precious teachings. Now it's time to reclaim those as well.

How about this one? "Ask and you shall receive?" How often do you ask and ask for something or some situation only to see it elude you time and again? Why doesn't this work? After all, it's in the Bible, right? Here's why it doesn't work - we leave out a very important part of the teaching. It says "Ask...believing....." How often do we ask or affirm something only to say to ourselves or someone else, "That'll never happen."

We have to believe and expect that what we seek can and is already ours. And we have to know there is always a higher Power handling things for us, a Power that can see behind our request and give us what we need even if it isn't what we think we want.

When it comes to the issue of our health, it's very easy to talk ourselves out of the believing piece, isn't it? Sometimes it's very difficult to believe our health will improve the way we want it to and, truthfully, it might not. We might not get what we want. How can this be reconciled with "Ask and you shall receive?"

We end each prayer "...this or something better, with ease and grace for the highest good of all concerned." In other words, we acknowledge that what we're asking for might not be for the best and we just can't see this from our limited human perspective. This is another way to say "...if it be the will of God." A minister criticized me one time for the ending I use and said I should say "...if it be the will of God." I think it is semantics because the will of God is for the highest good of all concerned.

We ask, believing that what happens is for the highest and best for all concerned - that follows the formula and that is something we can do. Why not give this a try next time you're praying for something and see if it doesn't bring you greater peace and sense of wholeness?