This week we decided to Celebrate Sunday with a discussion about prayer. Instead of a sermon, we selected some Bible passages and part of a speech on prayer by Rev. Moon. We included testimonies and discussion time within the selected readings.

How does prayer impact your life?

James 5:13-17

“Is anyone among you in trouble? He should turn to prayer. Is anyone is good heart? He should sing praises. Is one of you ill? He should send for the elders of the congregation to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer offered in faith will save the sick man, the Lord will raise him from his bed, and any sins he may have committed will be forgiven. Therefor confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, and then you will be healed. A good man’s prayer is powerful and effective.”

Cheryl: “God has answered all of my prayers, but that doesn’t mean I liked all of the answers. Some answers came quickly and some took 30 years. Through prayer I’ve experienced healing and miracles for myself and others. But I don’t often pray for such things, maybe if I did it would happen more often. 

Sometimes we take God for granted expecting Him to be there whenever we need something. Just because we pray doesn’t mean everything is going to work out the way we want it to, God knows what we need. Be careful of what you pray for, you might get it but it might not have been what you really needed or wanted.”

• Pray often to touch limitless spiritual power. You must become a person who lives by this power. – SMM
• The Word of God and prayer are ultimately love. – SMM

Question: How do you like to pray and what do you usually pray about?

Kim: “There are as many different styles of prayer as there are people. Just as each child in a family has a different relationship with their parents, each of us has a unique relationship with God. Sometimes a prayer can be simply listening with your heart for the peace and presence of God. At other times it might be passionate or sorrowful. One person may cry out and another might only whisper. One person might relate to God better in a Cathedral while another person finds God on the beach. It’s about relationship.”

“The Importance of Prayer ” – Sun Myung Moon 

(with discussion points)

“Prayer is an absolute necessity. You may kneel all the way down to pray, but the most important thing is that you create an environment of commitment first. Unless your basic attitude is ready, no amount of prayer will be useful. In the Christian world today many people pray every day, but do you think they pray to destroy the Christian churches? No, they pray for prosperity, but the churches are crumbling nevertheless. Do you pray for the sake of the Unification Church? You don’t have to pray for the Unification Church; pray for the big things-the nation, the world, the liberation of God. What you are really doing then is praying for a cross even bigger than the Unification Church.

In order to fulfill bigger things you need an adventurous mind willing to take risks. Then God will tell you not to worry, that He is right behind you. If you throw yourself into overcoming the stone walls and persecution before you, God will take up your battle for He knows who is just and who is unjust. But first God will watch, giving you a chance to knock your opponent down with your own capability. This is the same thing a father and mother would do. If you come running to God to ask for help before you even confront your enemy, He, like any parent, will be ashamed to hear you and will send you back out again. Create a good problem: be a heavenly troublemaker instead.

You know there is a big battle coming so you must ready yourself in body and spirit. After you go first you can ask God to come and help you with anything you lack. Then God will say, “Go ahead. I am right behind you.” If you seriously sit down and pray in those circumstances, God will encourage you. As soon as proof of your commitment comes to God, an avalanche of help will come to you. I have had the experience of thinking about some problem and not even praying about it, but already God knew my thoughts and went one step ahead of me. When I discovered that my thinking had been fulfilled, He smiled and said, “See what I did?”

You need the basic attitude of sincerity as a foundation of prayer. Otherwise, no prayer will work. More important for creating that atmosphere is to go out and serve one more person, knock on one more door, receive more persecution. That is more valuable than sitting for hours in a dark room praying. Prayer is only needed after you have exerted all your energy and it was not enough. Then you can ask God to come help. When you can do it then you don’t have to ask God, but can tell Him to relax. The prayer for all seasons is the prayer for God’s kingdom and His righteousness.”

• “Have you had an experience when you tried your best but a problem was too big for you, so you asked for God’s help and you received it?”
•  “Have you ever had an experience where God answered your prayer before you even asked?”

“Do you think God prays sometimes? Sometimes without thinking a parent murmurs to himself or herself, “Oh, I wish my son would do this, or be that way.” That is God’s prayer also. God is murmuring about you, about me and about the Unification Church because this is an emergency and He is engrossed in His concern. That is God’s prayer. You don’t even have to sit down to pray; you can just talk to yourself as you go, whispering and murmuring your concern. That’s prayer. In our case praying and doing is our life. Praying and waiting is not our life.

If you pray unconsciously in everyday life then undoubtedly you are becoming sons and daughters of prayer. you give your last ounce of energy but it is not enough, then ask God for assistance and your prayer will be answered. If that were not the case, how could we ever subjugate Satan? Satan has given unending anguish and heartbreak to God for 6,000 years and if there were no way we could finally subjugate him then there would be no end to it. There must be a way.

The power of prayer works wonders, but prayer must be serious and done with one united heart, not a divided heart.

Prayer is like a covenant between you and God, a promise. Once you make a contract, you follow through and then it will undoubtedly be fulfilled. That is the attitude I am talking about. You must not be disappointed when prayer is not answered immediately. Some answers come late. At other times you should not be overjoyed when prayer is answered quickly. That is not necessarily the best thing.”

• Do you have any prayers that have gone unanswered, or took a very long time to get the answer?

“Because you are surrounded by the world there are many stages to go through horizontally and vertically. The answer to prayer does not come from you but down from heaven and it takes time to reach you. There have been many foolish people who received answers to their prayers up to a point but who didn’t go the final inch, and when they weren’t satisfied they betrayed God. When you pray for the world you may not see things changing immediately around you, but far away the world starts to crumble. The impact of prayer can be felt in a faraway place.

You must think that your prayer today may not be fulfilled until thousands of years from now. I pray such prayers. I am not praying just for this world today; I am praying for 1,000 and 2,000 years from now. If that prayer makes a bridge between that time and now then the Unification Church will continue to flourish even a long time after I am gone from the earth. That kind of prayer is needed.

If many of you pray that kind of eternal prayer, the world will start to shake and the impact be far-reaching. The root of that prayer is your tears, sweat and blood, and out of it beautiful flowers will blossom. When Jesus prayed on Gethsemane he was deadly serious, shedding tears, sweat and blood. All day long you must be in a prayer mood, not just one hour, but 24 hours.

Through prayer you can receive visions into the future and guide yourself accordingly. You will know what kind of difficulty is coming and how to divert it and overcome. If you know how to steer yourself then you can do big things, and prayer alone can pioneer such a path. It is more important than eating. I go out to nature because it gives me a better environment for prayer, and I love nature for that reason. I love the quiet of midnight. I don’t say much about the visions I receive, but if you receive them then don’t you think I do too? That kind of new world can only be reached through prayer. In that position you can taste love. This world is desert like, but the world created through prayer has a climate where love can thrive.

You must learn how to generate your own power. You cannot expect that I will always pull you and push you out. You must make yourself self-propelling. In order to do that, prayer must be the diet of your life. Whether people recognize your efforts or not, you must do your duty enthusiastically because you have a covenant with God.  Day and night you move on; there is no pause. That is a living testimony.” – SMM

• Have you ever received visions or specific guidance through prayer?

Phil 4:6-7

“The Lord is near, have no anxiety, but in everything make your requests known to God in prayer and petition with thanksgiving. Then the peace of God which is beyond our utmost understanding will keep guard over your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.”