This simple shift will CHANGE how you pray

hello hi did you see my fruit basket oh yes beautiful I got it at Cove it's my favorite Kosher grocery store yes what which one of the five towns is that in I think it's in Inwood because you have to go go across the Rockway Turnpike to get to it oh okay it might be Lawrence though I don't know I never can tell when I'm going across those little boundaries yeah anyways but we could talk about Co save and the five towns and fruit baskets all night but you called in for a reason so let's talk about what you wanted to talk about yes thank you I really appreciate that I'm I'm honored to be a caller on your show thank you what I wanted to ask your guidance about is this I feel that God is trying to send me so many beautiful blessings he already has and sometimes I get the feeling that maybe I'm blocking them due to feelings of unworthiness and I would like to know how I can make it easier for God to bestow the blessings on me that he is trying to bestow because sometimes I get the inkling that my own doubts and feelings of inadequacy or unworthiness as un founded as they may be um are blocking are creating an obstacle a block like a wall between me and the blessings he is trying to bestow on me and my on my life bring it that he's trying to bring into my life yes wow wow okay so first of all for everyone listening uh this is a real concept this is not just um our callers feelings like this is a real concept speaks about this in cabala uh one of the sources for it is actually teaching from who explains in the name of the BAM yes he says in the name of the bam that there's a there's a verse in Psalms in toim it says Hashem Hashem is your well you could translate the word as shade and the I think more conventional understanding of that verse is Hashem is your protective shade but the B have taught hm can also be a shadow Hashem is your Shadow what does it mean Hashem is your shadow that just like your Shadow perfectly mimics all of your movements the way that Hashem runs the world is that he reciprocates he mirrors he matches so what we project is what we get back yes so it's a real concept and specifically when we are happy and joyful and full of gratitude then more cause for happiness and joyousness and and gratitude comes at us and if God forbid the opposite we could actually initiate a vicious cycle which is difficult to break so what you're describing is very real yeah now the here's the thing though and I I don't want to argue with you but I'm going to argue with you you sound like you are grateful well thank you for saying that and that is an excellent point I really appreciate that I am very grateful for what God has given me I just feel that sometimes I get the feeling there's so much more and he's just trying to say Jodie allow the good to come into your life I'm trying to bring even more good into your life but if you don't think you're worthy of receiving it then I can't bring it into your life okay so first of all there is more because God is infinite so there's always more um but let's talk about this so you do have the Gratitude absolutely you have the Gratitude but the Gratitude is sort of intermingled with another feeling which we'll call Self outb where you are so appreciative of your blessings and you see your blessings and you're counting your blessings but at the same time you have this feeling of you're you call it unworthy with that that you're now not worthy of the blessings and you're worried that because you're not feeling worthy of the blessings that could be an impediment to receiving more of the blessings um I hear that okay that is exactly correct okay okay I'm glad that I understood it but you made it really easy to understand because you're extremely articulate so let me suggest something to you I'm going to sidestep the whole thing I'm not going to even deal with the unworthiness because we could talk about self-esteem and I could try to boost your self-esteem but I think we could just sidestep it we don't even need to go there and I can give you a hack are you interested in a little hack that might work here yes very much so okay great so in order to explain this to you I I'm gonna have to back up and I'll talk in general about prayer what's the deal with prayer isn't it selfish to give God a shopping list like give me this and this and this and this and this and this and this like if we're really godc conscious people we should just show up and say God thank you for everything and uh I put myself in your hands and do whatever it is that you want to do and yet we are told toay ex yeah I know and and yet we are told to pray and we're according to to many opinions it's actually one of the 63 Commandments is to express our needs to turn to God and ask for our needs so how do we reconcile that is it selfish to pray and to ask God for our needs or um or is it proper so the answer is like this it depends why you're asking it depends why you're asking there's you know I don't think a lot of people realize that one of the models like archetypes for prayer in Judaism is Hanah Hannah the mother of SCH or Samuel she was a propheus and a very holy woman and in the book of Samuel describes when she was Baron and she went to the sanctuary in we call it Shilo or the engl sized version is Shiloh and Shiloh reminds me of a Civil War battle so shil mishon shil she went to the sanctuary in Shilo and she was praying for a child because she was Barren she was praying for a child and this before she conceived Schmo the prophet Samuel so the K God the high priest his name was ay and he comes in he saw her praying and it says that her lips were moving but she didn't make a sound now if you've ever seen Jewish people praying especially um the what we call amida which means standing because it's the standing prayer it's the central prayer where you stand um you'll notice that we move our mouths but we don't make a sound silent prayer and that's because we are imitating how KH or Hannah prayed so yeah so ay the K the high priest he's the one who runs the the sanctuary he comes in he sees her praying moving her mouth not making a sound and she's sort of like murmuring to herself like that's what it looks like because we started praying this way after her so before that it wasn't like a known thing so he didn't know what she was doing he thought she was like maybe like talking to herself so he asked her are you drunk and she says no I'm not drunk I'm a brokenhearted woman and I'm praying for a child now I'm going to just cut to the chase here but if you learn the laws of the Holy Temple you will know that if somebody is drunk they are not asked if they're drunk they're immediately removed so he didn't really mean are you drunk like intoxicated with alcohol he meant are you being indulgent are you spiritually drunk you're in the holiest place in the world the the mishkon was the sanctuary that's where the holy of holies was where God's presence was was revealed in this world you're in the holiest place in the world and you're you're praying about what you need like is that appropriate so it's drunk It's spiritually drunk It's indulgent it's self-absorbed so she says to him let me tell you something I'm praying for a child and he's like yeah that's that's exactly what I'm saying you're you coming to God with your needs she says but no listen the rest of the conversation she says to him I want this child to give the child to Hashem and when as soon as he is able I'm going to bring him here and he will serve God here in this house which is exactly what happened she raised him until he was yeah until he was self-sufficient and she brought him to the sanctuary and he he lived there he lived there Samuel lived there he he was raised there and so basically what was she saying to him she was saying yes I'm asking for a child you think I'm asking for a child for me it's not for me it's for God I want to give this to God that's my gift if God gives me this child then I have the ability to dedicate that child back to God so when we imate sour of a pure a pure motivation yes completely not a selfish motivation correct real altruism where our only concern is to be givers so it's interesting if you ask God make me Rich why cuz I want to be rich you know it's a little bit self-indulgent but if you say God give me the opportunity to give you my wealth to dedicate wealth to charitable causes ah so then I'm asking to be a giver I see that's extremely insightful and helpful let's go back to your issue and maybe even you could Intuit it why I say this will be a hack because your problem is you're not sure if you're worthy of more blessings so how does this clear that up and avoid the whole issue because that's kind of not relevant necessarily it seems yeah you got it because this is for no say it to everyone else because everyone else is listening they want to understand it thank you because whether or not I am worthy is not relevant to God well he believes we are all worthy the prayer must be for the higher good for to hold repeat that phrase hold on that was a great phrase say could you say that again I I want everyone to hear that just the prayer must be for what the higher good I love it I love it okay sorry to interrupt you keep going you're doing great thank you thank you oh whether or not I'm worthy it's like a little is not relevant in the in God's eyes because God is saying if I say a prayer if one says a prayer for the higher good something that I will be able to gift back to God yeah then that prayer will be answered whether or not I may see myself as worthy you got it you nailed it yeah can I tell you one of my favorite Parables yes okay this Parable is about a guy it's not a real guy it's just a parable he's a parable guy and he's driving in the car one night well what was his name whatever you want it to be okay he was driving in a car one night and he was hating life he was miserable and he wasn't a big believer but he was so miserable with with his life he actually murmured a prayer and he said God I hate my life give me a new life and in the middle of the car he wow yeah yeah yeah well it's just a parable don't get too excited and in the middle of okay in the middle of the car God starts speaking to him you remember like John Denver you remember that oh yes see I really appreciate the callers to this show a lot of times I I'll drop a reference like that people won't know what I'm talking about remember when John Denver was in the car and George Burns started talking to him yes I love it okay fine so and people who don't know what I'm talking about you just go Google John D driving the car George Burn song then you'll understand what I'm talking about okay so anyways this guy's in the car and he's oh God I hate my life give me a new life and what do you know God answers him in the middle of the car and he says to him a new life a new life yeah sure you're in luck today I have a new life for a very reasonable price the guy says what how much is that guy says well how much you got the guy's like H I got about 20 bucks on me God says okay give me the 20 bucks the price of of your new life is 20 bucks the guy's driving remember he's like he looks at the gas tank and he's like but I'm running out of gas I need to put more fuel in the tank and if I give you my 20 bucks that's all I have I won't be able to get more gas God says oh you have a you have a car price for your new life just went up it's 20 bucks in your car the guy says hold on a second if I give him my car how am I going to get to work in the morning God says oh you're gainfully employed yeah so the price for your new life has gone up again it's 20 bucks your car and your job the guy says the guy says if I give you my job how am I going to pay the mortgage mortgage oh you're a homeowner yeah seems that the price for your new life has gone up again once more the price for your new life is 20 bucks your car your job and your house the guy says God if I give you my house where are my wife and children going to live God says oh dear price of your new life has gone up again it is $20 your car your job your house your wife and your kids at this point the guy realizes he better shut up because every time he makes a comment it's getting worse so now he's not speaking wow he [Music] says so God says to him all right now you have any comments you want to say anything okay now before I give you your new life I'm going to give you your brand new life I need you to do a few things for me is that okay the guy says M okay God says first thing I want you to do God says you see this $20 it's not your $20 God says it's my $20 was your $20 and now it's mine I want you to spend it for me but it's my $20 God says so you're going to spend it but because it's mine you can only buy things I want and God says you see this car it's not your car it's my car now I want you to drive it but because it's my car you have to drive it to places where I would want to go God says you this job it's not your job it's my job but I want you to show up there every day and do business the way that I want business conducted you see this house God says it's not your house it's my house but I want you to live in it but I want you to live in it the way a house of God is lived in open doors and hospitality and see this wife and children this family God says they're not your wife and children they're my wife and children and I want you to treat them as such can you do all of this for me guy says mhm God says great then here's your 20 bucks here's your car here's your job here's your house here's your wife and kids and here's your new life the difference between the old life and the new life was simply ownership to whom does it belong in his old life which which he detested it was all his in his new life he doesn't own a thing it all belongs to God but he is assigned with the Holy task of making use of it and that's all of us wow that's all of us all the blessings that you have and I know that you're blessed and that you feel blessed those aren't for you to use those are for you to to give away you know I I got my fruit basket here and I'm thinking about fruits you know think about fruits like a red tamarillo and if you don't know what a red tamarillo looks like just let me have fun here we're gonna just look this is how they look when they grow on the tree look at that okay I don't know if you're still watching but okay so the red tamarillo gorgeous little fruit but I want to tell you something a red tamarillo tree doesn't eat red tamarillos no it doesn't an apple tree doesn't eat apples a plum tree doesn't eat plums an orange tree doesn't eat oranges the tree grows the fruit for others to consume so your blessings are not for you your blessings were given to you as a stewardship that you are being entrusted by God to make good use of those blessings oh I love that perspective and if you are of service then I want to tell you something there's no limit to the amount of goodies that you can run to the back and you know go to the kitchen and grab as many platters as you want because you're coming out to serve God's kids that's a that's a a perspective of abundance There's No Limit right I appreciate this so much because it's really changed my perspective especially on prayer that's great and I really appreciate that because I'm going to have this in the Forefront of my mind from now on when I pray that is so cool that's great and thank you thank you thank you this was this was a wonderful discussion really appreciate it hey this is shase toab you were just watching a clip from this class if you want to get the full context the full class that this clip that you just watched was from you watch right here click right here here