Why you should practice meditative prayer every day

Many say they don’t know anything about meditation.  Some have misconceptions of its purpose.  Still others say they cannot meditate.

I can easily solve the lack of knowledge concerning meditation by defining the what and the how of it. Through training, you can learn meditative prayer.

To become” good” at meditation requires time and practice.  I am a quilter. When I tried to quilt the first time, on my own, it was a disaster.  I was frustrated. Thought it was too hard and eventually threw the half-finished quilt in the trash. Five years later I went to a class to learn to make a miniature quilt. I took what I learned and began making wall quilts.  I took more classes and began making larger and larger quilts, until I was making king-size quilts.  I went on retreats with other quilters and learned from them.   I took more classes and began designing my own quilts.  I eventually won numerous ribbons and was featured in newspaper articles.

Now what does this have to do with meditation?  You must be trained in the type of meditative prayer that will help you every day in every way.  You should meditate in the morning when you wake up, at noon during your lunch break, and in the evening before going to sleep and any other time you feel the desire.

You may say that it is too often however when you were learning to drive you took every opportunity to get behind the wheel.  If you want to learn to skateboard really well, you ride it every chance you get; to play the piano really well you have to practice, practice, practice in the correct manner; to be a fine athlete you must practice consistently.  Likewise, you must do the same with active meditative prayer to calm your soul, to solve problems, and to ask for what you deeply desire.

If you have not made meditative prayer a daily habit then your requests may not be answered no matter how big or small.  However, to be able to ask in the right way when some adversity befalls you or something that needs immediate attention comes into your universe you must practice, practice, practice in the correct manner.

Yesterday I was hooking-up my camping trailer to my truck for transport to the campground.  Just as I was beginning, it started to thunder, then rain and soon small pellets of hail came down.  Not good weather for going camping.   It normally takes me about five or six tries of backing up, missing the mark, pulling forward, being off-again all the while getting in and out of my truck to see where the trailer and ball are located.  You see I travel alone, and I don’t have a backup camera.

I got in the truck with the rain and hail pounding on its surface and with fervent desire I stated I didn’t want to do the hookup dance again.  So what did I want instead?  I closed my eyes, calmed my soul, rolled my eyes at as though looking to the heavens and said, “I don’t know how I align my ball and hitch with the trailer.  I only know I do now, and I am fulfilled.”   I then began to visualize aligning the ball and trailer perfectly.  I opened my eyes and using my normal visual aids, I backed up the truck.  When I got out, I found it was in the perfect position to lower my trailer onto the ball.  In fact, the entire set-up from hooking up the trailer, going to the campground, finding the perfect spot and then setting up, went easily and effortlessly.

In the objective world, I would have continued with my normal frustrating process of hooking up my trailer while dealing with the rain, the hail and the wind.  However by going into the subjective world (the world within), visualizing what I wanted, what I desired in the subjective manifested into the objective or physical world.  Using meditative prayer to ask for what I desired, I was able to gain assistance in changing my outcome.  However this is because I practice meditative prayer daily and was comfortable with the process.

By practicing daily, it becomes natural and easy to stop, decide what you want instead, go into the meditative state and ask for what you desire.  Even for things like hooking up a trailer.