While most of us have been brought up to trust that prayer involves pleading to God to greatly help, save, fix problems and bring us things nowadays, that is not true prayer nor its purpose. Prayer in A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is quite different and very beautiful. More than a song, it is joyous exchange of Love and thanks between God and His Creations that employs the forgiveness process to improve the mind before Prayer Song is all that remains. It’s the ticket home so understanding true prayer, and forgiveness, will probably be worth the time in retraining the mind.

Prayer is exchanging (sharing) a Song of Love and Creation or judgments of the ego based on what you require (agree with) in the mind. There is absolutely no other way. In the Course, your brain (content) is split between God and the ego; and you also are choosing on a regular basis with a side as cause for effect.Forms (all things of this world) are miscreations reflecting the ego’s judgmental thought system. We’ve managed to get up (miscreated this world) and can cease anytime by correcting the mind (forgiveness). True prayer requires this correction of the mind as God has nothing in connection with forms.

What Prayer is Not:



Since you are always deciding, everything you ask for when you pray is what counts. Once you plead in prayer to possess God fix a form problem with another form problem, you are asking the ego mind for help (not God). Those forms and needs are deemed more important than God’s Love that will remain hidden to the degree you select the illusion.

All external things (forms) are needs. Other labels are wants, desires, status, problems, sickness, human love (special relationships), gifts and goals in this world, etc. a course in miracles online They are what you choose as substitutes for God’s Love and the ego will distort the objective of prayer by using them to further the illusion. Therefore, prayer cannot be about “forms” or “needs” at all.

The objective of Prayer:

The Song of Prayer is defined by the Course as a Song of Creation, Love and gratitude being sung from the Father to the Son and returned from the Son to the Father. God gave this gift of Want to His Son at Creation in order that it is a single voice shared by both the Creator and Created. Continuously sharing Love and Creation backwards and forwards extends them forever in eternity. That is prayer’s purpose.

Within this form world of illusion, this prayer is still a gift from God offered through the Holy Spirit, the memory of God in the mind. It’s how you reach God in the illusion. Anyone who has ever remembered the tiniest instant of the all-inclusive joy must begin questioning what he could be choosing (praying for) and how to change his mind so he can have that all the time.

True Prayer and Forgiveness:

True prayer is: (1) asking to get what’s already there, The Song; and, (2) on the way, using forgiveness (correction of the mind) to stop the ego forms or what’s not necessarily there. Joining with Love in true prayer is requesting nothing (i.e., no illusion, forms or needs) and that means you find yourself receiving everything (Love). One problem. One solution.

Forgiveness (correction of your brain) is a section of true prayer and makes the process go quicker. Prayer is timeless and goes on forever, and forgiveness is the illusory ladder with time that returns the mind to the endless exchange. Forgiveness disappears when the mind is completely corrected and remembers only The Song.

The big secret of true prayer and forgiveness would be to focus on disregarding and giving up the things you imagine you want and need in the illusion, even the specifics, as this asks for your brain to be returned to Truth (Love). You are not furthering the illusion. You’re agreeing with God that (a) you’re a mind; (b) this form world is not real; (c) you made a mistake; and, (d) you can choose again.

Using correction of your brain (forgiveness) places those forms and needs on God’s altar, or in his hands, as idols which are nothing more than anything you have chosen to become more important than God’s Love. No longer wanting anything before His Love, the only real effect God could return is your remembrance of Him. The more you give up, the more meaningless the planet becomes and the faster you sing His Song.

Prayer in the Illusion:

Since the mind still resides with God, the Course says you don’t have to decide alone and really should ask the Holy Spirit for help deciding and await the answer. Otherwise, you’ve already decided with the ego. In the event that you must make a decision on the spot, you’ll get the appropriate “need” answer right then.An answer is an echo of God’s Voice from the Song of Prayer. You’re not requesting the echo itself. You are choosing the gift of Love from The Song giving up all form needs. “Need” answers in the illusion are contained within that echo even through the correction of your brain process. They’re met at the level of the forgiveness ladder it is possible to understand and accept.