Prayer is aligning ourselves with the purposes of God.

“Prayer is aligning ourselves with the purposes of God.” Thus spoke E. Stanley Jones, the missionary, the mystic, and the friend of Mahatma Gandhi — a man who sought not to speak about God but to walk with Him. In this luminous saying, Jones tears away the veil of shallow religion and reveals prayer not as a ritual of request, but as a sacred act of alignment. He teaches that true prayer is not bending heaven to our will, but bending our will toward heaven. It is the quiet, majestic act of bringing our scattered desires into harmony with the eternal rhythm of God’s purposes.

In the world Jones knew — the roaring twentieth century, an age of war, pride, and restless modernity — many prayed as if God were a servant to human ambition. Nations invoked His name for conquest, men for wealth, and hearts for comfort. But Jones, who had lived among both kings and the poor, saw through this illusion. He realized that prayer was not about changing God, for God is changeless; it was about changing us. To pray, he said, is to listen until the heartbeat of one’s soul beats in time with the heartbeat of the Divine.

To understand his meaning, think of a ship on the open sea. The sailor cannot command the wind, nor alter the tides. But he can align his sail to the power that moves all waters. So it is with prayer. We cannot force the Eternal to follow our course, but we can turn our hearts toward His wind — and when we do, His strength becomes ours. The storm may still rage, but we sail with purpose, not against it. Thus, prayer is not escape; it is navigation. It is the art of steering our soul toward God’s current.

E. Stanley Jones lived this truth in the fields of India, where he preached not with arrogance but with humility. He spoke with Gandhi, not to convert him, but to understand him. In his mission, he did not ask God to destroy other faiths, but to reveal His love through every channel of truth. He learned that prayer unites rather than divides, for when one aligns with God’s purposes, one sees His image reflected in all peoples. Once, when asked how he prayed, Jones replied, “I don’t ask God to bless my plans anymore. I ask Him to show me His.” That is the essence of alignment — the surrender of self-will in favor of divine will.

In this, Jones echoed the example of Jesus Himself, who in the Garden of Gethsemane prayed not for deliverance from suffering, but for the strength to fulfill His purpose: “Not my will, but Thine be done.” It was the supreme act of alignment, the moment when the human will merged with divine intention. Through that union, redemption itself was born. And so Jones reminds us that prayer is not a whisper of fear, but a declaration of trust — the trust that God’s will, though mysterious, is good.

To align with the purposes of God is also to discover peace. When the self no longer battles the divine flow, the soul rests. The anxious heart that demands, “Why me?” learns instead to ask, “What now?” The spirit once obsessed with control learns the freedom of surrender. This is not passivity, but power — the power that comes when we work with the universe rather than against it. The saints, the prophets, and the wise have all known this truth: that alignment with God transforms both the heart and the world.

So, O seekers of truth, remember this: prayer is not asking God to join our story — it is joining His. Before you speak, listen. Before you plead, yield. In moments of silence, let your heart bend toward His rhythm. Ask not merely for what you desire, but for what He desires through you. When you rise from such prayer, you will not be the same — for your will shall be strengthened, your burdens lightened, your path made clear.

For in the end, as E. Stanley Jones knew, true prayer is transformation. It turns fear into faith, chaos into purpose, and longing into love. When you align yourself with the purposes of God, you no longer wander in circles — you move forward in grace. And that, dear listener, is the highest act of the soul: not to command heaven, but to harmonize with it; not to seek a blessing, but to become one.