Prayer

8 Qawl 163 B.E. - November 30, 2006

Today I was reading post to one of my Yahoo groups. One of the members used a prayer cup. This cup sits on the person’s desk and when someone asks for prayers; he writes the name and date on a piece of paper then put it in the cup. Once a day the person takes the slips of paper out of the cup and prays those of ask for prayers.

Another person uses a God Bag. She writes any problem or difficulty she’s having on a slip of paper, dates the paper, signs it, then at the bottom of the paper puts “Thy will and not mine be done.” she then puts the paper into the bag and forgets about the situation.
There are many ways to put a situation into God’s hands. In the Baha’i Prayer Book, there are prayers for every contingency in a person’s life. These prayers are reveal by Baha’u’llah and the Bab or written by ‘Abdu’l-Baha. It doesn’t matter what one’s need or problem is there is a prayer for the situation. True sometimes the prayer doesn’t specifically mention the problem on is facing, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a prayer for the difficulty.

The prayers are there, all a person has to do is sit down, open the book and read a prayer. If it helps to mention the problem before say the prayer, then mention the problem. If one isn’t sure precisely which prayer to say then say the Remover of Difficulties revealed by the Bab.

"Is there any Remover of difficulties save God? Say: Praised be God! He is God! All are His servants, and all abide by His bidding!" - The Báb, Compilations, Baha'i Prayers, p. 27

There are many ways for a person to put their problems in God’s hands. The idea is to turn everything over to the Divine Essence and then get on with one’s life. Sometimes the problem is getting on with one’s life without worrying about what’s been turned over the Divine.