THE POWER OF POSITIVE PRAYER
by Rich "MR POS" WILKINS

I can remember my first attempt at public speaking in a business environment. The opportunity came when I was to accept an award for the Outstanding Salesperson of the Year for my former company. In a five minute period of time, I managed to break every public speaking rule and look like a fool before an audience of about 125 sales people. I had to leave the podium, and rush to the restroom to throw up because I was so nervous. It was at this time that I planted the seed in my subconscious mind that I wanted to become a professional speaker. As I began my journey for the next several years, I utilized a resource called prayer before each speaking event. In my earlier years as a professional speaker it sounded something like this; "Dear God, please give me the strength to get through this upcoming presentation as I am scared to death because I know the audience is more experienced than I am, and they are looking for new things for me to say. Please be by my side and help make my nervousness go away as I am very scared." I realized at the time that prayer was a source of empowerment that had the ability to help me through my nerve-racking experiences.

One day prior to a speech I was making before a large audience, I changed my prayer of desperation to a prayer of Thanksgiving. This is what it sounded like. "Dear Lord, thank you for this very successful presentation that I am about to make. My audience is caring, they want to see me succeed as a speaker, and I realize that all of my successes come solely through you. Once again, thank you for allowing me to make this very successful presentation and thank you for allowing me to remain on a POSitive path in life." Changing the attitude of my prayer from one of need, to one of Thanksgiving made all the difference. As a result, my speaking career took off!

In general most people don’t understand the power of POSitive prayer because they usually don’t exercise prayer until they have a need and they are desperate. How about yourself? Are you restricting the power of your prayer because you are living in fear and praying mostly when you have a need? Or are you praying with faith because you know that God has the awesome power to give you a POSitive outcome. Practice changing your prayers from prayers of needs to prayers of POSitive expectations by thanking God everyday for all of the small things that He brings into your life. Recently we were selling my wife’s car to some friends of ours who owned a jewelry store. The prospective owner needed to get the car transferred into his name, however he was having a hard time getting away from his jewelry store. A customer overheard his conversation with my wife and said she worked for AAA and if my wife would just sign off on the title she could take it back to the office and have the car transferred for them. My wife exclaimed, "Thank you, thank you, Lord for putting this wonderful women next to me." This was a powerful prayer of thanksgiving publicly and God honors our joyful hearts. After all, if God can create the Universe don’t you think that He will joyfully put someone across your path that can help you with a simple task?

Make it a habit to thank God everyday for all the small, medium and large things that he does for you, and watch how you will also become a mighty blessing to others through His power and unselfish love. God loves a POSitive prayer!