"What's the best way to pray?" a sincere woman once asked me. "Do I kneel, sit with my eyes closed, chant, meditate, or just empty my mind of every possible thought?" I replied that successful prayer doesn't start so much with what you do with your body as with what you're doing mentally and spiritually. And that it's important to know what you are striving to accomplish when you pray. Because once you know your goal, you'll figure out the best way to get there.
"I've been praying for a car for over six months," another woman told me. "And my garage is still empty! Why hasn't God answered my prayer?" Many people might sympathize with this call of distress, but we can learn from its lesson.
My experiences with praying have taught me that the purpose of prayer is not to tell God what we want. It's to listen to God and learn what His plan is for us. "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven," Matt. 6:10. is how Jesus put it in the prayer he taught his students. I've seen that it doesn't really matter if we kneel, stand, or sit with our eyes closed. The primary need is to spiritualize thought, to gain a more enlightened view of what God is already doing on our behalf. This, when understood and appreciated, leads to positive adjustments in our lives.
