Discussions about prayer tend to deal with it as though prayer were some kind of alternative approach to life, not something that we do all the time anyway. This way of looking at prayer stems from the belief that we are separate from God.

If Saint Paul is right when he says, “In Him we live and move and have our being,” then every action we take, every thought we think, and every word we say is a prayer. We cannot NOT pray.

To put it in New Thought terms, we live in a creative medium. We cannot move a finger without putting a cause into motion. The more conscious we become of this, the more effective we are in life, both in the details and the larger scheme of things. The less conscious we are of this, the more we find ourselves at the effect of external causes. Jesus said, “I am in the world but not OF it.” To be “of” the world means to be at the effect of external causes, like a boat without a rudder, drifting aimlessly at sea.

My teacher once told me that a root extending itself into the soil in search of moisture is identical to us reaching for a glass of water. Identical. We live in a spiritual world. It is driven by intention and runs on connection. Everything we see with our physical eyes is but the effect of larger and deeper forces. These forces live in us; we are not separate from them.

The question, therefore, is not whether to pray, because we’re praying all the time. The question is whether we can become conscious of what we are praying. Our every thought is a prayer.