Some Enemies of Prayer: Hope

Another Enemy is Hope.

Hope is always future. Faith is always now.

Someone comes to me and asks me to pray for them, and I say, "Was the prayer answered?' And they answer, "I hope it was."

Then I know it will not be answered, and I frankly tell them. "No, the Hoper's prayers are seldom answered."

Hope is a beautiful thing when it is about Heaven, or the coming back of the Master, and everything that belongs to the future. But for present-tense practices and present-tense life, hope is a dangerous enemy.

It is beautiful, but it is dangerous!

The Hoper is always a failure. It is the Believer that is a success -- and believing, you remember, is acting on the Word.

-- E.W. Kenyon, In His Presence