Who believes in the POWER OF PRAYER?????

by whereami 56 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  snowbird

  Anyone who claims that their god answered their prayer is an egotistical fool deserving of nothing but scorn and derision.

  I beg to differ!

  The Bible indicates that God has a timetable for eradicating all the suffering that has ever happened on this here planet. All of it.

  Granted, it takes faith to believe that, but there are millions, if not billions, of people who have such faith.

  We are the vessels, He the Potter. When, how, where, He chooses to deal with His creation is His business, and His alone.

  Sylvia
• 

  Dagney

  I did a little bit as a dub

  I did a lot when I left.

  I don't at all now. I realize anytime and anything I thought had resulted from prayer was just a series of circumstances and coincidences and my own brain at work. Without prayer now, the same conicidences occur even more so. The strength I imagined was god given in the past is actually my current state of mind, which I work on 24/7. I do it, not sky daddy.

  It is all about what you have faith in.
• 

  Caedes

  Snowbird,

  What I am saying is that making the claim that god answered your personal prayer is saying that your request was important enough for god to make sure it was fulfilled. Either your god thought your request was more important than say the floods in Sumatra or you think your request was more important than the floods in Sumatra. So which is it?

  If praying helps you then fine but claiming those prayers are answered is the either the very heights of egotism or your god is a dick.
• 

  Luo bou to

  You talk as though prayer is a tool to fix a problem that it has power and if it doesn't work and you don't get what you want then it's useless. Personally I like talking to God. He was the only friend I had when I was DF. For those who will claim I am simply talking to myself that it is soliloquy I offer the following poem

  They tell me Lord that when I seem to be in speech with you,Since but one voice is heard, it's all a dream One talker aping two

  Sometimes it is, yet not as they conceive it,Rather, I Seek in myself the things I hoped to say But lo!, my wells are dry.

  Then, seeing me empty,you forsake The listener's role and through My dumb lips breathe and into utterance wake The thoughts I never knew.

  And thus you neither need reply Nor can; thus, while we seem Two talkers, thou art One forever, and I No dreamer,but thy dream
• 

  snowbird

  What I am saying is that making the claim that god answered your personal prayer is saying that your request was important enough for god to make sure it was fulfilled.

  I pray for myself and others - come to think of it, mostly others, Christian or otherwise - that we will be given the strength to endure whatever comes our way. In my case, I receive a comforting feeling of peace. I can only hope that others benefit likewise.

  Either your god thought your request was more important than say the floods in Sumatra or you think your request was more important than the floods in Sumatra. So which is it?

  Neither, on my end; on God's, I wouldn't presume to speak for Him, but I don't think so.

  If praying helps you then fine but claiming those prayers are answered is the either the very heights of egotism or your god is a dick.

  Egotism has nothing to do with it, Caedes, but faith, everything. God is love, never a dick.

  Sylvia
• 

  goldensky

  Dear all:

  I must be honest to myself and most grudgingly admit that as much as I would have liked to be "convinced" by those of you on this thread who believe, not in the power or prayer, which I don't doubt, but in the power of prayer due to a loving almighty Father who cares for each one of us, the arguments exposed here by those of you who don't believe in it have really resonated with me, I find them OH HOW UTTERLY AND PAINFULLY IRREFUTABLE... whereas unfortunately I haven't found any evidence except a keen desire to believe backing up the comments of those of you who have faith...
• 

  snowbird

  GoldenSky.

  Sylvia
• 

  Caedes

  Snowbird,

  I have no issue with you getting a feeling a peace from praying, I was very specifically talking about people who claim to have had personal prayers answered.

  If you are claiming that god answered your prayer rather than answering the prayers of the people dieing in Sumatra then that is egotistical. It is you that is (presumably) claiming your god answers prayers and thus it is you that is by extension saying your prayer was more important than the prayers of the six hundred people who died in those floods. This has nothing to do with faith, over six hundred people lost their lives (that is a fact) and you are saying you 'know' that god has answered your prayers (in your mind, a fact).

  So if you believe in a god that interferes directly in the life of humans then you are claiming your prayers are more important than all of those people who died, you are claiming that answering your prayers is more important to god than the lives and prayers of all of those other people.

  If your god is love then he has a funny way of showing it
• 

  goldensky

  Thank you, Sylvia. You've reassured me. I doubted whether writing this last post in case I offended you, among other posters. I'm glad I didn't. A big hug to you, Goldensky.
• 

  snowbird

  A big hug back to you, GoldenSky.

  Caedes, you and I will never see eye-to-eye on this.

  An impasse is not necessarily a bad thing.

  Agreed?

  Sylvia