YouTube: One Presence, One Power
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen
This final line in the Lord’s Prayer is our equivalent of saying, There is but one presence and one power in the universe: God, the Good, omnipotent. This is a fitting realization to hold for any prayer.
How many times have you prayed for some greater good in your life and then you closed your prayer with the attitude: I hope it works. The closing line, which is not actually found in the Bible, is an affirmation that there are no blocks, no negative powers working against you, and no reason to expect anything but the highest and best outworking of the thing that concerns you. Amen is a seal of acceptance, an affirmation of so be it, or so it is. You could conceptually translate the line like this: My greater good now unfolds completely unhindered in wonderful ways that work for the highest good of all, and I receive it now.
One of the best ways to approach the idea of prayer is to treat it as a creative process. When you pray, you are opening yourself to God as a Creative Life Force. You are planting a seed and agreeing to allow it to grow as a new condition in your life. When you plant a seed, you release it with the certain expectation that this tiny package of potential will produce in a certain way. You do not, however, meddle in the growing process. You trust, and you keep the growing environment free of hindrances to its growth. The tiny sprout that appears looks nothing like the full plant that you know is coming forth, but this does not concern you. You know something good is happening and you are patient and expectant with the growing process.
You and I do not have the power to influence the way God behaves. We do, however, have the power to put ourselves in harmony with God’s expansive behavior. We do this through the acceptance that the greater good we desire is now coming forth in perfect timing and in perfect order. And so it is.
J Douglas Bottorff 