Prayer versus Meditation
“I don’t know what to do,” she said, her eyes brimming with tears. “God has not answered my prayers.”
I have heard this same lament many times in many ways over the years. It is the product of a defective outlook. God always answers prayers, one-hundred percent of the time. The problem is, sometimes the answer is “No.”
Prayer is, simply stated, talking to God and can be divided into three categories: praise, thanksgiving, and petition. Answers are expected only for the petition prayer, that is requests for help.
Every concept of God I’ve ever come across includes the fact that God is omniscient or all-knowing. In other words, God already knows what your problems are, why you have them, what is best for you, and what the outcome will be. It is far better to acknowledge that God knows what is best for your life than to demand that God change circumstances to do what you think is best.
Obstacles and problems are not your enemies. Progress in all spheres of life occurs through facing, embracing, and overcoming obstacles. In the physical sphere you cannot become a strong cyclist without accepting the challenge of the hill and riding up it. You cannot become a good swimmer without swimming across bodies of water or become strong without physical exertion.
In the mental sphere, to sharpen and expand the intellect, you must accept the challenge of study; you will not progress by begging God to do your homework for you.
The same principle holds true in the spiritual sphere. To develop spiritual traits such as compassion, love, devotion, forgiveness, patience, and moral courage you must embrace the problems and conflicts that require the development of these characteristics. These conflicts are a gift; if God removed everyone’s obstacles on request, spiritual progress and development would cease.
Meditation and prayer are not the same thing. Prayer is talking to God, as discussed above, while meditation is the effort to bridge the finite with the infinite within.