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One of AA’s biggest messages is to go to a Power greater than ourselves; doing so is addressed in five of the twelve steps AA suggests following to attain and maintain recovery. Those of you who have been reading my blogs are aware that seeking my Higher Power’s help is a common theme.
Almost everything I’ve ever read about prayer is lengthy, intellectual, and, at times, somewhat confusing. But today, my Higher Power, whom I choose to call God, led me to a new insight about prayer that makes it easier. I encountered it in reading a story about a child who was learning to read and proudly pointed to a word in a church bulletin as he told his grandmother he had learned to read the word “Go.” The grandmother discovered her grandchild was pointing at the word “God,” and she was able to teach him adding a “d” to “go” spelled God. The insight the grandmother learned from this was what jumped out at me when I read this devotional reading this morning : “Go is the first word in the word God” (Carney, M., 2012, “Daily Guideposts 2012, p. 138, New York: Guideposts).
Prayer is as simple as that. Just go to God. That is even simpler than Christ’s “Ask and it shall be given to you.” Just go. That means my prayer does not have to be a fancy written or spoken prayer. It can, and often is, as simple turning my thoughts to God when I view His beautiful creation or am grateful for something. I don’t have to be scared or in trouble. A thought can take me directly to God. Thinking about going directly to God reminds me of a Monopoly game when a chance card tells you to “Go directly to jail , do not pass Go.” However, in life going directly to God is not a game; it is spiritual reality, and the “chance” that God gives me over and over again is to “go directly to God and don’t pass over ‘go’.”
So, I am going to “go to God” with the joy and thanksgiving in my heart and soul all this morning because of reading and then hearing the CNN news report that Syria had accepted Russia’s chemical weapons proposal. Now the world has a chance to collectively handle this serious situation in a peaceful manner. Actually, my thoughts have been “going” to God all morning thanking Him for giving us this chance at peace. This feels like the answer to prayers for peace I and many others have released to God these past couple of weeks.
I couldn’t find a formal prayer in my church’s Book of Common Prayer this morning that directly addressed saying “thank you for answering prayer.” That doesn’t mean it is not there; it just means I didn’t find it. That was okay, because God is just as happy when I go directly to Him with my heartfelt prayers of gratitude for having answered our prayers.
So, this morning’s simple topic is “Add the D, and go to God.” Please comment and share your thoughts about going to God in prayer. May God bless and keep you.
Living One Day at a Time 
My easiest way to pray is to go to God and say “thank you” for whatever He has given me today. I like the visual of the grandson learning when that you add a D, the word go becomes God. What a thought: the word go “becomes” God. There is a song with the words, “moonlight becomes you, it goes with your hair,” —–and so we
“go” to God in praise and thanksgiving for His many gifts that He gives to us without asking. Those gifts are the greatest because He gives them freely; they are what He wants us to have, not necessarily what we want but what we need. When I am feeling down because something has changed in my life that is not pleasant and I am upset, then I “go” to God to thank Him for everyone and everything around me, and then my spirit is lifted.
That doesn’t mean I don’t have specific prayers for specific people or wants or needs, just that it’s easier to pray once I say thank you.
You’re right on target—–thank you is essential!
And it does make things easier.
Thank you for your simple and direct insite this morning. I like p.836 in BCP