Stop praying like you’re begging for scraps.

That’s why your plans fall apart. That’s why the world ignores your voice.

You kneel, you whisper, you plead – but all it shows is a lack of faith.

You weren’t made to beg. You were made to command.

Don’t get me wrong – prayer is a form of faith. But if you pray like someone who doesn’t believe … if you doubt, if you’re just hoping for a miracle you secretly think will never come … if you’re waiting, crying, complaining – then it’s not faith at all. It’s a broadcast of fear and lack.

Neuroscience tells us your brain listens to the story you repeat. It takes your words as marching orders. Pray like a beggar, and your brain wires itself to expect scraps. Pray like a commander, and you activate the networks in your mind that seek solutions, recognize opportunities, and pull you toward what you claim.

Scientists found that just watching tiny particles changed how they behaved. Prayer works the same way – what you focus on with expectation shapes what shows up.

Life works the same way. If you expect little, you’ll get little. If you expect abundance with unwavering certainty, you start tuning into the version of reality where it’s already yours.

You’re not here to plead for crumbs – you’re here to speak as if the feast is already set before you.

The master put it plain: “If anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.” That’s authority! It’s knowing reality bends to conviction.

He also said, “According to your faith, let it be done to you.” In other words, you don’t get what you want; you get what you expect.

And “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” That’s the mental blueprint – see it done before it’s done.

Begging mode doesn’t just feel weak – it makes you weak. Neuroscience calls it a low-agency mindset. When you approach your goals from desperation, your brain flips into survival mode. You become less capable of spotting opportunities or making bold moves. You’re programming your reality to deliver the same disappointments, over and over.

Flip the lens, and everything changes. When you speak and act with certainty, your nervous system recalibrates. Dopamine and serotonin rise, your motivation climbs, and your tolerance for risk increases. You start scanning for proof that what you’ve declared is already unfolding. It’s not magic – it’s chemistry.

Faith in command mode looks different. It’s not passive, waiting on the sidelines for something to change. It steps onto the court and plays to win. It’s the voice that says, “This will happen,” instead of “I hope this happens.” It’s moving your feet before you see the finish line, because you know it’s there.

Every great spiritual teacher, every revolutionary leader, every game-changer in business, art or science – whether they spoke in the language of God, the universe, or the human spirit – operated with that same unshakable conviction.

Before David killed the giant, he declared it first. Standing in front of Goliath – armed with nothing but a sling, a few stones, and an unshakable belief – he didn’t whisper a prayer of survival. He spoke a statement of victory. “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands!” It wasn’t just a declaration; he was saying that his prayer was already answered, and the answer was yes!

You are not here to rehearse defeat in your mind. You are not here to train your nervous system for scraps. You are here to speak life into your own story – out loud, without apology, without retreat.

Every word you speak, every image you picture, every act you take is casting a vote for the reality you will live in tomorrow. Stop praying in fear. Stop reinforcing lack.

Pray like you own the place. Speak like the thing you want is already written in the book of your life, not from an attitude of pride, but from humility.

The truth is simple: reality doesn’t give you what you hope for – it gives you what you command, and then work for like it’s already yours.

• Toby Moore is a Shaw Local News Network columnist, star of the Emmy-nominated film “A Separate Peace,” and CEO of CubeStream Inc. He can be reached at feedback@shawmedia.com.