A House of Prayer for All Nations
Mussar

Faith, Prayer, and Abundance: Believing in the Power of Your Own Voice

· editor
In short: Drawing on the teachings of Rabbi Natan of Breslov, this article addresses a common spiritual struggle: the feeling that one's prayers go unheard and are therefore pointless. It argues that this discouragement is the work of the evil inclination, and that every person has the power to effect real change through prayer. By persisting through the difficult early stages, a person builds genuine faith — and that faith becomes the vessel through which divine abundance flows.

Every person must strengthen himself greatly in faith in himself — that is, in the power he has to bring about whatever he desires through prayer. We often see people sink into chalishut da’at (despondency, a weakening of the spirit), as each of us knows from personal experience. They come to feel that their prayers carry no weight, that they accomplish nothing, and that prayer is therefore, God forbid, worthless. This weakness leads them to grow lax in prayer, or to stop praying for their needs altogether.

But in truth, this feeling is nothing more than an interference of the yetzer hara (the evil inclination). The truth is that every person must strive with great effort and invest real energy in prayer — and in prayer offered with genuine intention.

When a person first takes it upon himself to pray, the beginning is the hardest and most exhausting part. At the outset, he has not yet seen any result or any tangible effect from his prayers. But when he merits to persevere with all his strength, and eventually merits to witness some outcome or change that came about through his prayer, he is strengthened in this path. He comes to believe in himself and in the power of his own prayer, because he sees that the Holy One, blessed be He, truly listens.

This faith creates within him a keli (a vessel) through which he can receive even greater divine shefa (abundance) through the words of his prayers. For the vessel that receives abundance is fashioned through faith — through a person’s belief in himself, in the power of his prayer, and in the fact that the Creator of the world hears and attends to his voice. In this way, strengthening one’s faith in prayer carries the power to draw down additional abundance from the Creator of the world through the act of prayer itself.

(Based on: Rabbi Natan of Breslov, Likutei Halakhot, Laws of Inheritance, 4)