new church life: september/october 2016
to our sins, pray to the Lord, and begin a new life. The fact that repentance is not
possible without examining ourselves [has been shown]. And what is the point
of examining ourselves unless we recognize o ur sins? What is the point of that
recognition unless we admit that those sins are in us?
The passage concludes:
What is the point of all three of these steps unless we confess our sins before the
Lord, pray for His help, and then begin a new life, which is the purpose of the whole
exercise? This is active repentance.
As the process of becoming an angelic person is similarly summed up in
Apocalypse Explained 837:
[T]he first thing of reformation [for a person] is to refrain from sins, to shun them,
and finally to be averse to them; but that he may refrain from them, shun them, and
be averse to them he must pray to the Lord for help.” (Apocalypse Explained 837.5,
emphasis added)
Be assured, peace will truly come when what is wrong within us has been
removed.
Such is the absolute, vital necessity and power of prayer!
The Fundamental Purpose of Prayer
This is what prayer is actually all about – a change of life for the better.
Therefore, although I have dealt mainly with the purpose and nature of
formal prayer, and suggested how we might make better use of prayer in our
worship, I wish to conclude with the teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine that the
fundamental purpose of prayer is actually the worship of life or, as it is there
termed, “practical piety”:
Worship does not consist in prayers and in outward devotion, but in a life
of caring concern. Prayers are only its outward practices, for they come out
from a person through his or her mouth, consequently people’s prayers are
such as they themselves are in respect to life. It does not matter that a person
bears him- or herself humbly, that he or she kneels and sighs when he or she
prays; for these are outer things, and unless outer ones proceed from inner
ones they are only gestures and sounds without life. In each thing that a person
utters there is affection, and every person, spirit, and angel is his or her own
affection, for their affection is their life; it is the affection itself that speaks,
and not the person without it; therefore such as the affection is such is the
praying. Spiritual affection is what is called caring concern for the neighbor;
to be in that affection is true worship; praying is its utterance. From this it
can be seen that the essential of worship is the life of caring concern, and that
its instrumental means are bodily acts and praying; or that the primary of
worship is a life of caring concern and its secondary is praying. From this it is
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