God is seen by many as a being who grants requests

• God is seen by many as a being who we can pray to and make requests of; to request what we desire; to pray to for divine intervention in our lives.
• God is seen as a kind of magician or a kind of dream-granter or as the ultimate provider of all we need.
• Through prayer, obedience and worship, we feel we can get God working on our behalf and even manipulate God to do what we want.
• Sometimes we feel the impulse to beg and bargain with God.
• The metaphor of God as request granter encourages our supplication.
• We are told God answers every prayer, not always in the way we expect, but always exactly as we need even though the answer is sometimes “no”.
• We are told we need to be patient in awaiting an answer to our prayers for God’s answers are always on God’s schedule.
• Sometimes God’s answers are in the realm of the unseen.
• Sometimes God doesn’t seem to answer at all and this, we are assured, is often for the best for we don’t know what is truly best for us.
• We are told God answers prayers as God is good.
• We are told God always uses our requests in accordance with God’s purpose.
• We are told God’s answers to our requests is dependent on the strength of our belief and faith.
• We are told to be specific and clear in our requests and to ask for difficult, even impossible things but without too much attachment to a specific result.
• We are told delayed answers are a test of our confidence in God and a test of our trust.
• God answering our prayers becomes a virtuous cycle.
• This metaphor of God as a Request Granter sees God as sovereign with all the power.
• This metaphor encourages dependency on God and to some extent, could be seen as a negation of our own power.
• That God does not answer our prayers is seen by some as a reason to rail against God or deny God.
• Some argue we run the risk of thinking of God as a cosmic bellboy.

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Alternative prayers to supplication

• The most powerful prayers are not prayers of supplication
• Instead of supplication, use prayer to tap into God’s strength, harnessing strength to endure and transcend life’s challenges and the strength to answer your own prayers as well as the strength do what God wills.
• Instead of asking for what you want, use prayer to ask God what God wants so you can relinquish your requests and become an instrument of God’s will.
• Instead of supplication, pray to know the mind of God.
• Instead of supplication, offer prayers of gratitude for the more powerful prayer is one of gratitude, not request and paradoxically prayers of gratitude will bring us far greater abundance that prayers of supplication.
• Instead of supplication, pray for others and for the good of The All and ask for opportunities to serve.
• Instead of supplication, turn prayer into a form of communication and dialogue with God in order to connect with God and to build an intimate relationship with God.
• Once we sense our oneness with God, we are able to transcend begging.
• Instead of supplication, contemplate God through prayer.
• Instead of supplication, ask for access to God’s intelligence and wisdom and for new ways of seeing things.
• Instead of supplication, use prayer to praise God.
• Instead of supplication, pray in silence and listen for God’s voice, realising prayer and meditation are complimentary.
• Instead of supplication, use prayer to awaken to the divinity within you and realise the immense power you have in you to make a difference. This power is the spiritual power of God within you, being you.

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The power of prayer beyond supplication

• Prayer contains great power, particularly prayers that ask for nothing.
• Prayer is most powerful when we pray for another.
• Prayer can be a salve and a comfort in difficult times.
• Prayer helps us transcend worry and anxiety.
• Prayer helps us solve problems.
• Prayer changes us and shapes us and even transforms us; especially our character.
• Pray regularly and combine action with prayer.
• Time spent praying is a great investment.
• Pray regularly.
• Give God your full attention.
• Combine prayer with purposeful action rather than using prayer as a substitute for action.
• Our everyday actions must live up to our prayers.
• Pray from the heart for your feelings are more important than the words.
• Pray with love.
• Pray while you work.
• Pray during both good times and bad.
• Realise you never need beg God for love for it is given.

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