Prayer is, in itself, an expression of desire for something, whether it be for one’s self or for others. Unless the desire is fulfilled by knowledge and belief that it will be fulfilled, a prayer is barren. It will not come to fruition.
What do we mean by that? We mean that man is put on Earth to complete his and Earth’s destiny through purposeful action. All desires, therefore, which call for fruition by help to man from God come only to him as the reaction to his own actions and in no other way. This means that man must first give in order to receive. Actions must always precede reactions and the reaction is always the image of the action.
Words are but word-pictures of desires. A word-prayer for a crop of potatoes will end in empty words as its reaction, but the word-prayer of desire followed by the creative action of work is the kind of prayer which is always answered in all fullness.
Prayer might well be defined as an expression of desire to work knowingly with God.
It necessarily follows that any man who wishes to unloose the mighty universal momentum, which every reaction is, should well consider the nature of his desire before asking that it be granted or before acting upon it, for he must know that whatever it is, it ends in him where it began.
It also necessarily follows that the measure of the fulfillment of any desire requested from Nature is dependent upon one’s knowledge of Nature and his relation to it. A deer, for example, does not pray in words. It prays through desire, followed by action. It desires speed for its legs, for example. Long ages of repetition of that desire, followed by the repetition of action, answers its action-prayer with longer legs. The desire will give it speed in its body for that is where its desire is centered. Speed for its body means work for its legs from which it will soon tire.
When man desires speed for his body, he does not ask for longer legs for his knowledge prompts him to ask for another extension to his body. His little knowledge is enough for him to extend his body by adding a wheel and a cart–and a horse to pull the cart–while he attains greater speed with ever-lessened effort until his body attains a speed of hundreds of miles per hour without effort due to the extensions to his body which knowledge and desire gave to him. He thus adds the reaction of momentum to his desire by knowing God’s power sufficiently to be God in the measure of his knowledge.
You who are the head of a great business know full well the hard work of the initial impetus you gave to it, and you also know that for every effort you made in working WITH God’s law, God met you more than half-way and multiplied your effort by giving you His power of momentum in the measure of your knowledge of its use. Great businesses grow by the multiplication of momentum acquired by substituting Mind-power for body-power. I also said “great” businesses–I did not say “big” business. You have seen countless men whose desires were unlawful fall by the wayside, ill and broken of body, as they received from the universe the like measure of wrong action which they gave forth to it.
Set no limitation to your desire, therefore, for its greatest measure cannot in any wise affect the balance of the universal supply. No matter how small or great is your desire, the speed of your thought in asking for it is the same. A small wire extending from a small battery will send a message from you at 186,400 miles per second to a little bell which you desire to ring just as surely as a large wire will carry a higher voltage current to ring a great bronze bell in a church steeple. The little wire and weak current will not, however, ring the big bell. It would burn up with so much current.
It is important that the power required for your desires and actions should grow together. To work knowingly with God do not expect terrific momentum immediately for you are not yet ready to contain the load. Should the entire fulfillment of your desire come to you the moment of your expression of desire, it would as surely destroy you as the big current destroys the little wire.
Truth Reset 
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