All those times Jehovah answered my prayers...

by Julia Orwell 19 Replies latest jw friends

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  Julia Orwell

  ...and granted me strength, friends, a job, whatever...was all either through my own effort alone or sheer luck.

  I wanted a government job so I prayed for one and went out looking for one every day for ages and made a heap of applications...and got one. My own effort.

  I wanted a friend and prayed for one, crying myself to sleep with loneliness.....and after 6 months in the new congregation someone reached out to me. Chance.

  I prayed to be able to stand up to my family when they put pressure on me about Christmas etc...my own cult conditioning so strong.

  I prayed to find a nice husband...luck when I moved congregations and one of those sisters who just has to match make introduced us. Chance.

  I prayed for financial stability...then I worked for years to get a degree. My own effort.

  I prayed every day for my family to 'come into the truth'... and it turns out they always had it.

  It was never Jehovah. He didn't give me anything. Fourteen years of praying every day and things happened because I made them, or because of chance.

  What about you? How were your prayers 'answered'?
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  Aunt Fancy

  I use to pray years ago and nothing happened so I stopped and I honestly feel that you make things happen by hard work and persistence. Our life is very stable right now and we are doing well financially but it is because we busted out butts to make it happen. i look at the JW's and with all of the praying they do their lives do not go well as a general rule.
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  Witness My Fury

  Almost never, and the single time I felt i got an answer it was like yours on reflection just chance, circumstances etc with no external supernatural cause.

  God sucks at his job or maybe he's too busy helping born agains find their keys or win at sports?

  
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  Farkel

  : What about you? How were your prayers 'answered'?

  When I stopped praying for answers the miracles started happening and then I realized the miracles were there all along whether I prayed or not.

  This opened up huge new possibilities. I could give a god all of the credit, none of the credit or just some of the credit. It's now MY choice because the miracles keep coming (when I least suspect them). That is magical.

  Farkel
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  Julia Orwell

  I find believing god isn't going to answer prayers if he even exists motivates me more to get out there and make life happen. One can stagnate as a jw, rolling everything onto Jehovah, as they say, and waiting on Jehovah and leaving it in his hands. Or the 'I went out witnessing more and answered up more etc so Jehovah should bless me' mentality ie make an offering to your god in exchange for a good harvest mentality, ie earn favors from Jehovah. Seen it so often. Now it's nice to realise we make our own destinies.
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  Fernando

  Sometimes it seems to me prayers are often answered once a person has forgotten about the prayer.
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  MadGiant

  I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.

  ~Frederick Douglass, escaped slave (1817-1895)
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  adamah

  Being a part of nature, the human brain also abhors a vacuum, except it's vacuum is that of an explanation for why things happen.

  But rather than finding the actual answer, the imagination is quite able and willing to fill the empty space with a fantastic explanation, if allowed. The process is called 'confirmation bias', and the perception of prayers being answered is a great example of it.

  Granted, part of prayer is identifying problems that you want to ask God to provide an answer to, and that first step is a part of any approach to problem-solving, with or without God. But the difference is what happens AFTERWARDS, when the person takes steps to fix the problem.

  It's like the old joke about the guy who prays everyday to win the lottery, and God finally says, "You know, you could at least meet me halfway by actually BUYING a lottery ticket!".

  Of course, believers give God the credit for 'hits' when whatever they asked for actually happens due to their own efforts, but they also let God off the hook for 'misses', blaming themselves for being unworthy of what was asked, or feeling guilty for even daring to ask, etc. God cannot lose in that kind of environment of after-the-fact rationalizations occurring in the minds of believers, since it's simply unacceptable to them that God should lose (at least, until they are mentally-strong enough to accept that God exists only in their minds).

  Adam
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  jeremiah18:5-10

  Mealtime prayers, "thank you heavenly father for providing this food...." Used to bother me, because everyone else (non jws) were eating too. So if he's providing for them too, what makes us so special. Guess you can give credit wherever you choose to. You can see what you want, doesn't make it so.
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  tec

  Sometimes it seems to me prayers are often answered once a person has forgotten about the prayer.

  Yes, that happens to me too, Fernando.

  Though I have come to understand that prayers of God, and questions of Christ... are not really the same thing. My questions of Christ are answered by Him. (whether I choose to listen or not is upon me) That answer may come LATER, even sometimes after forgetting the question was asked to begin with.

  I can't speak as to "Jehovah"... and it is not the name pronunciation so much; but who you are praying TO. (like if you think that God is going to kill billions, including people who follow His own sons' teachings, then that 'jehovah' does not exist... and how can you expect to be heard? Or if you are wishing for others deaths and if you are 'beating' others down, ignoring those in need, etc... how can you expect to be heard?)

  But God, the Father of Christ... does answer prayers. Though one might want to keep in mind the prayer that Christ taught people to pray. There wasn't a whole lot of asking things for themselves. Christ did say that we could ask for holy spirit, and we can ask for ears to hear Him, and faith, all to do His will.

  Peace to you,

  tammy