Imagination · “Feel It Real”
The Soul's Sincere Desire
To uncover the deepest, truest desire of the soul and pray it by seeing the good as already real in the Kingdom, rather than begging for it.
The Soul’s Sincere Desire in 5 lines: Get quiet and find what your soul truly, sincerely longs for. See the spiritual reality behind the want — the love, peace, or wholeness it represents. Then “pray to see things that are already in the Kingdom,” not to bring them to pass. Hold the good with love and joy, never strain. Carry it lightly through the day — and keep doing the real-world work.
What it is
This is Glenn Clark’s foundational prayer practice from The Soul’s Sincere Desire (1925), a book that grew from his 1924 Atlantic Monthly essay.
Taking the old hymn line “Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,” Clark teaches that real prayer begins not with a wish-list but with discovering what your soul actually, sincerely longs for — and then praying it by seeing that good as already present rather than pleading for it to appear.
His governing instruction: “Do not pray to bring things to pass; pray to see things that are already in the Kingdom.” The work is therefore as much an act of discernment (what do I truly desire?) as of imaginative faith (I behold it as real).
The Method
A faithful organization of Clark’s teaching into practical steps:
- Find the soul’s sincere desire. Quiet yourself and ask honestly what you most deeply want — not the surface want, but the longing beneath it. Clark distinguishes idle wishes from the soul’s real, sincere desire; only the latter is true prayer-material.
- Translate the need into its spiritual reality. Clark’s chapter “In the True Spirit” urges praying “not for needs but for the spiritual Realities which they represent” — behind a material lack, the love, joy, peace, or wholeness it stands for.
- See it as already in the Kingdom. Rather than asking God to make it happen, picture and recognize the good as already existing in spiritual reality. “Do not pray to bring things to pass; pray to see things that are already in the Kingdom.”
- Hold it with love and joy, not strain. Clark says the helps to prayer “keep the mind stayed on God and keep the eye single, filled with Love and Faith and Joy.” The tone is restful recognition, not anxious wanting.
- Let it rest and return to it. Carry the seen good quietly through the day, returning the inner eye to it rather than re-arguing for it. (Sourcing note: quoted phrases are short excerpts from / faithful paraphrase of Clark’s text as reproduced in public-domain editions; the numbered shape organizes his teaching.)
Source & Lineage
Glenn Clark (1882–1956) was an English professor and athletics coach at Macalester College and founder of the Camps Farthest Out. The Soul’s Sincere Desire became one of the most widely read prayer books of its era and carried New Thought’s affirmative, picture-holding model of prayer into mainline Protestant devotion.
The “see it as already real” move descends from the New Thought current (Trine, Troward, Wattles’ “clear mental image”) read through the Gospels.
The Traditions' versions
Wattles’ clear mental image — forming a definite picture of the thing desired and holding it with faith and gratitude.
- Sanford’s “see the perfect” — picturing the good (here, health) as already accomplished, offered to God.
- Murphy’s “imagine the happy ending” — dwelling on the wish fulfilled.
- Behrend’s mental picture / visualizing — holding the inner image until it is impressed.
- Living in the end — assuming the feeling of the desire already realized.
Common refinements
Praying surface wants. The practice fails if you skip the discernment step; find the sincere desire beneath the wish.
- Begging instead of beholding. Re-asking re-asserts lack; Clark’s whole shift is to seeing the good as already real.
- Straining the image. The tone is love and joy, not effortful concentration.
- Naming a desire that violates love. Clark frames true prayer within love and unity, not self-seeking at another’s cost.
- Passivity. Beholding is not a substitute for ordinary action toward the good.