© 2004 Jean Barr
© 2004 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
“Worship is for its own sake; prayer embodies a self or creature-interest element; that is the greatest difference between worship and prayer. There is absolutely no self-request or other element of personal interest in true worship; we simply worship God for what we comprehend him to be. Worship asks nothing and expects nothing for the worshiper. We do not worship the Father because of anything we may derive from such veneration; we render such devotion and engage in such worship as a natural and spontaneous reaction to the recognition of the Father’s matchless personality and because of His lovable nature and adorable attributes.”
“The moment the element of self-interest intrudes upon worship-that instant devotion translates from worship to prayer and more appropriately should be directed to the person of the Eternal Son or the Creator Son.” (UB 5:3.3-4)
The Greek religion had a watchword “Know yourself”; the Hebrews centered their teaching on “Know your God”; the Christians preach a gospel aimed at a “knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ”; Jesus proclaimed the good news of “knowing God, and yourself as a son of God.” These differing concepts of the purpose of religion determine the individual’s attitude in various life situations and foreshadow the depth of worship and the nature of his personal habits of prayer. The spiritual status of any religion may be determined by the nature of its prayers. (UB 5:4.8)
Words are irrelevant to prayer; they are merely the intellectual channels in which the river of spiritual supplication may chance to flow. The word value of a prayer is purely autosuggestive in private devotions and sociosuggestive in group devotions. God answers the soul’s attitude, not the words. (UB 91:8.12)
The more healthful attitude of spiritual meditation is to be found in reflective worship and in the prayer of thanksgiving. The direct communion with one’s personal God Fragment, such as occurred in the later years of Jesus’ life in the flesh, should not be confused with these so-called mystical experiences. (UB 100:5.10) (Please note that it was in the later years after He had succeeded in completing most or all of the levels of growth that we as humans must complete here to have this direct communion.)
“Prayer is entirely a personal and spontaneous expression of the attitude of the soul toward the spirit; prayer should be the communion of sonship and the expression of fellowship. Prayer, when indited by the spirit, leads to co-operative spiritual progress. The ideal prayer is a form of spiritual communion, which leads to intelligent worship. True praying is the sincere attitude of reaching heavenward for the attainment of your ideals.”(UB 144:2.2)
“Jesus brought to God, as a man of the realm, the greatest of all offerings: The consecration and dedication of his own will to the majestic service of doing the divine will.”
Jesus always and consistently interpreted religion wholly in terms of the Father’s will. When you study the career of the Master, as concerns prayer or any other feature of the religious life, look not so much for what he taught as for what he did. Jesus never prayed as a religious duty. To him prayer was the following:
- A sincere expression of spiritual attitude,
- A declaration of soul loyalty,
- A recital of personal devotion,
- An expression of thanksgiving,
- An avoidance of emotional tension,
- A prevention of conflict,
- An exaltation of intellection,
- An ennoblement of desire,
- A vindication of moral decision,
- An enrichment of thought,
- An invigoration of higher inclinations,
- A consecration of impulse,
- A clarification of viewpoint,
- A declaration of faith,
- A transcendental surrender of will,
- A sublime assertion of confidence,
- A revelation of courage,
- The proclamation of discovery,
- A confession of supreme devotion,
- The validation of consecration,
- A technique for the adjustment of difficulties,
- And the mighty mobilization of the combined soul powers to withstand all human tendencies toward selfishness, evil, and sin. UB 196:0.10
He lived just such a life of prayerful consecration to the doing of his Father’s will and ended his life triumphantly with just such a prayer. “The secret of his unparalleled religious life was this consciousness of the presence of God; and he attained it by intelligent prayer and sincere worship-unbroken communion with God-and not by leadings, voices, visions, or extraordinary religious practices.” (UB 196:0.10)
We can achieve almost (we are not Jesus) this consciousness of the presence of God through the diligent achievement of the circles and mind levels we are aware of sometime after balance and transcendence. Eventually, a degree, (as human creatures), of the consciousness of His presence will be with us 24 hours a day!
“In the earthly life of Jesus, religion was a living experience, a direct and personal movement from spiritual reverence to practical righteousness. The faith of Jesus bore the transcendent fruits of the divine spirit. His faith was not immature and credulous like that of a child, but in many ways it did resemble the unsuspecting trust of the child mind. Jesus trusted God much as the child trusts the parent. He had a profound confidence in the universe — just such a trust as the child has in its parental environment. Jesus’ wholehearted faith in the fundamental goodness of the universes very much resembled the child’s trust in the security of its earthly surroundings.” (UB 196:0.11)
“It is not strange that He once said, ‘except you become as a little child, you shall not enter the kingdom,’ notwithstanding that Jesus’ faith was childlike, it was in no sense childish.” (UB 196:0.12)
If we practically live and modify our lives, by the simple things below:
What happens is that as we daily change our habit patterns — using the decision making law of God to do the “greater good for all concerned,” we are acquiring true wisdom, utilizing faith, building trust from that faith, and finally beginning to trust God’s ability to work for us and with us.
Trust comes and builds as we repeatedly decide to do the “greater good for all concerned” and literally see the results play out without any help from us-except the intent to do the greater good. We will find that and prove our Father is the most perfectly consistent Being ever encountered and it then becomes easy to trust Him when the results are glaringly apparent.
“If you would engage in effective praying, you should bear in mind the laws of prevailing petitions:”
We are told to pray only for values, not things. Things we can get, values we must have help with and develop the growth to appreciate and recognize values.
We are told that genuine prayer:
Again we are told that God answers man’s prayer:
And worship is thankfulness for all we have and know and are.
Jean Barr is an ordained minister, has served in senior executive capacities in the insurance industry for over 30 years, and now serves as president of the Michael’s Foundation, Inc., of Dallas, and is a marketing executive with a managed care company.