A young man with a grave problem was asked by his minister, "Have you prayed about it?" He answered, "Prayed? This is no time to pray. It''s time to do something!" To pray IS to do something—the most important something you can first do about any problem.

Why? Because prayer is the only action you can take that truly makes things different— from the inside out. This is true because physical action releases the weakest form of energy, whereas mental and spiritual action release the highest form of energy. Prayer deals primarily with the states of mind and laws of mental activity that rule your world. Prayer changes your mentality; it first changes your thinking as it calms, uplifts and renews you. This is one of the purposes of prayer — to change your thinking, which in turn changes your world.

But prayer goes further. There is another reason for all the shouting about the "power of prayer." Prayer releases the highest form of energy in the universe, as it links you with a God energy, which is your source. When this happens, prayer "turns you on"!

How? When you pray, you stir into action an atomic force. You release a potent spiritual vibration that can be released in no other way. Through prayer you unleash a God energy within and around you that gets busy working for you and through you, producing right attitudes, reactions and results. It is your prayers that recognize and release that God power. As you pray you expand mentally and spiritually so as to become big enough in consciousness to receive a larger flow of the divine energy generated through prayer.

Prayer is not only asking and communing—prayer is also receiving.