Top o’ the Mornin’ to Ya!
TLDR: Discover why praying in the positive – for what you want rather than against what you fear – aligns your unconscious, your visualization, and your faith with abundance instead of keeping your focus locked on scarcity.
What?
This morning, my wife and I were praying during our weekly meeting to plan and strategize our family, our lives, our prosperity, our growth. One of the things I said during the prayer was “Don’t let the roof leak.” We had a huge insurance claim on our roof a couple years ago, and the roof leaked through and ruined the wood and ruined the skylights. It was two years of a torn up kitchen and a mess.
My wife paused after the prayer and said “Remember, Brian, to pray in the positive. Pray that we have a strong roof, a secure home, and that positive part of it.”
One, our unconscious doesn’t do negatives. God is love, doesn’t do negatives. “Don’t” is just not a place that we can go. It’s a place that we run away from. Our thinking can’t NOT think something: “don’t think of a pink elephant”. Consider scarcity and abundance.
I don’t know how, but I grew up in a place of scarcity and away from scarcity. And what that puts my attention on is scarcity. When I’m running away from something, away from scarcity. I get away and I look back see the scarcity. I’m like “Hey, I’m away from it.” But it’s in my attention. It’s in my focus. It’s in my imagination, my visualization.
When I look at the secure roof or abundance and seeking abundance, seeking gratefulness, seeking generosity, seeking more, that’s where my focus is. And that’s what I’m visualizing. That’s what I see and get. When we’re looking at life, looking at my prayer this morning, praying for a solid home, a solid foundation, a solid family, love in our household, love for each other, the ability to learn, grow, and prosper, and to help others do the same – that’s what I’ve got.
Why?
I share this because Kingdom Family Leaders constantly pray, plan, and work from a negative frame without realizing it. We pray “Don’t let the roof leak” instead of “Give us a strong roof.” We strategize to avoid failure instead of create success. We focus on moving away from scarcity instead of moving toward abundance.
The difference seems small, but it’s massive. When you pray against leaks, your unconscious visualizes leaks. When you plan to avoid failure, your imagination focuses on failure. When you run away from scarcity, scarcity stays in your attention even when you think you’ve escaped it.
My wife’s gentle correction revealed what I was doing – keeping my focus on what I feared rather than what I wanted.
Lesson
Your unconscious doesn’t do negatives. God is love, doesn’t do negatives. When you say “don’t let the roof leak,” your mind has to visualize the leak to know what to avoid. That image of the leak becomes what you’re focused on, what you’re imagining, what you’re expecting.
“Don’t” doesn’t work – it’s only a place we run away from. Running away from scarcity keeps scarcity in your focus. You might get away from it momentarily, but it’s still in your attention, your imagination, your visualization. You see the scarcity you’re running from, not the abundance you’re running toward.
Praying in the positive means praying for what you want, not against what you fear. Strong roof, not no leaks. Secure home, not protected from damage. Solid foundation, not avoiding collapse. Love in our household, not absence of conflict. The ability to learn, grow, and prosper, not freedom from stagnation.
This applies to everything – prayer, planning, goal-setting, visualization. When you focus on seeking abundance, seeking gratefulness, seeking generosity, seeking more, that’s where your focus goes. That’s what you visualize. That’s what your unconscious works toward. Your imagination creates pictures of what you want, not what you’re avoiding.
The scarcity-to-abundance shift isn’t just about having more. It’s about where your attention lives. Running away from scarcity keeps scarcity in view. Seeking abundance puts abundance in focus. Same with secure roof versus leaking roof, solid family versus unbroken family, love versus absence of hate.
Apply
This week, catch yourself when you pray, plan, or set goals using negative frames – “don’t let X happen,” “avoid Y,” “get away from Z.” Reframe each one in the positive: what do you actually want? Strong roof. Secure home. Solid foundation. Loving household. Write down three current prayers or goals, then rewrite them as positive pursuits rather than negative avoidance. Notice how different they feel when you’re seeking something rather than running from something.
You be blessed!
