Prayers that God answers. Any examples?

by punkofnice 259 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • AndDontCallMeShirley
    AndDontCallMeShirley
    If you believe you got an answer and it helped you, good for you, but I don't know why God would answer your prayers and not someone else who was just as sincere.

    ---

    In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called "absolute poverty"

    Every year 15 million children die of hunger

    For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years

    Throughout the 1990's more than 100 million children will die from illness and starvation. Those 100 million deaths could be prevented for the price of ten Stealth bombers, or what the world spends on its military in two days!

    The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed one-third is starving- Since you've entered this site at least 200 people have died of starvation. Over 4 million will die this year.

    One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5. United Nations Food and Agriculture

    The Indian subcontinent has nearly half the world's hungry people. Africa and the rest of Asia together have approximately 40%, and the remaining hungry people are found in Latin America and other parts of the world. Hunger in Global Economy

    Nearly one in four people, 1.3 billion - a majority of humanity - live on less than $1 per day, while the world's 358 billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with 45 percent of the world's people. UNICEF

    3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on US$2/day.

    In 1994 the Urban Institute in Washington DC estimated that one out of 6 elderly people in the U.S. has an inadequate diet.

    In the U.S. hunger and race are related. In 1991 46% of African-American children were chronically hungry, and 40% of Latino children were chronically hungry compared to 16% of white children.

    The infant mortality rate is closely linked to inadequate nutrition among pregnant women. The U.S. ranks 23rd among industrial nations in infant mortality. African-American infants die at nearly twice the rate of white infants.

    One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night.

    Half of all children under five years of age in South Asia and one third of those in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished.

    Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide - a proportion unmatched by any infectious disease since the Black Death

    About 183 million children weigh less than they should for their age

    To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only US$13 billion- what the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year.

    The assets of the world's three richest men are more than the combined GNP of all the least developed countries on the planet.

    Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger

    It is estimated that some 800 million people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition, about 100 times as many as those who actually die from it each year

    http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm

    ---

    For the person who absolutely INSISTS that god answered their prayer, then you have to own the other side of the equation as well: why is your god ignoring all the starving, malnourished, poor, dying people of the planet who no doubt are also praying for one simple thing: FOOD?

    I'll re-post Entirely Possible's illustration from page 2:

  • LoisLane looking for Superman
    LoisLane looking for Superman

    Jeese Louise, AndDon'tCallMeShirley,

    If you look at my avatar, my "foot" really isn't big enough to "kick" anything, anywhere, let alone you. lol

    I am sorry if you took my words to mean I didn't like you. I do.

    I believe Maeve did answer PunkOfNice"s opening paragraph, from her heart.

    When I have used JWN's forum, to unload from my heart, I felt surrounded by love and kindness. I felt sisters(tm) reaching out to me and holding my hand, when I needed it the most. ADCMS, when I came onto to this Board, I like everyone else, needed love and support. Maeve has been on a journey too. She felt it was time, to share something very personal with us. Because PunkOfNice, did ask the title thread, Humble ( d) did answer his question.

    Again, AndDon'tCallMeShirley, I do apologize to you for offending you. I meant no harm.

    Just Lois

  • Miss.Fit
    Miss.Fit

    DCMS: This thread reminds me of an"ancedote": There was this very faithful man who was caught in a flash flood. The waters were getting higher and higher. He prayed to God to save him. Rescue workers came by in a boat and told him to get in the waters were getting high and he should leave with them. No he says, I prayed to God and I know he will save me.

    Finally they give up and leave him so they can help others. The water is getting high and the rain is coming down harder. He is now on the top of his roof. He prays harder. A rescue chopper comes by. They tell him to hurry and get in the water is getting higher and they are running out of time. He says , no I prayed and I know God will save me. Go help someone else.

    Finally the water got so high the man drowned. So he goes to heaven and sees God . He goes up to him and says Lord what happened? I had faith that you would answer my prayers and save me.

    God looks at him and shakes his head and says: What are you talking about? I sent you a boat and a chopper!

    Miss.Fit

  • humbled
    humbled

    I wonder a lot about prayers, LisaRose, how the answers come---or don't. I wonder ,too, about t he power of the mind and where and what God is or isn't. Whether prayer's answer it is a function of our own brain or of a being or power outside our brain. Why or how can work for one person and not another? Or, for that matter, how it will work one time when a particular person makes a petitions and then not "work" the next time that same person asks. What's that about?

    I say God answered my prayer because the strange timing of things made me think it took place outside of me. But I don't know how it happened.I don't know what God is exactly--is he in our mind? Is God a universal principle of love and surrender into whose stream I fell for a time? Was is a cosmic incident that sometimes happens like the equinox or an eclipse? I have wondered about the words to describe these adventures of strange causes and effects. I wonder how that goodness that set me free couldn't or didn't keep me from the Witnesses. But there is so much to wonder at.

    I have wondered if the power of thought is alluded to by Jesus as when he warned male disciples not to allow themselves to look lustfully at a woman because it effectively would make them adulterers. Or faith being enough to move a mountain. I don't think it is wrong to recognize the wild variation of outcomes. I do think it is wrong not to acknowledge that something is going on.

    For a long time I was depressed not to have a theology to hang this stuff on. I have had other prayers answered. I am not able to understand how this god/mind action works. and some prayers just hang in the air for a long time getting faded and worn, nearly forgotten.

    I can't grasp God not answering your prayer. If he answered mine then he must answer yours. so I don't get it either.

    ADCMS, about the world's suffering---shouldn't WE DO something about it ? Whether there is or isn't God there are human policies that starve and kill children. The U.S. should quit with it's national day of prayer and fast once a week instead and send the money where it's needed or else press that the U.S. be less oppressive to third world economies. that's the relationship I have toward prayer and the starving oppressed people.

    I told my own story--if people starve it doesn't make me a liar. I may not know how things happen. But starvation and cruelty--we need to do more than leave these people to pray for relief, we should help them however we can

  • punkofnice
    punkofnice

    Sorry I've been away and missed all the fun.

    I can't answer everyone's posts but just a couple..

    Miss Fit -

    EP, puncky, shirley, what is your definition of concret proof?

    Do you need witnesses, pictures, news stories, lightning strikes, a voice from heaven, signed letter from god ? Just wondering.

    Er...........yes. I was approached in the street by an arrogant pig of a fundy muslim weirdo and I told him I didn't believe in god. He got really angry as fundy weirdos do and asked me: 'Do you want god to write your name in the sky to prove allah exists?'

    I replied: 'Yes thanks.' and walked away.

    Humbled - Interesting story. Very vivid. I'm not sure as I understood how you had a prayer answered but perhaps that's just me missing the point.

    ADCMS & Lois - Appreciate the concern for the thread. Looks like we're on track matey peeps.

    Well. What can I say?

    I'm wondering if I should ask for a load of people to pray for me too to get my lad a house? I'll leave it a month and then report back with what happened. How's that? (awaits get out clauses).

  • AndDontCallMeShirley
    AndDontCallMeShirley

    humbled:

    ADCMS, about the world's suffering---shouldn't WE DO something about it ?

    --

    Yes. And that's exactly thepoint. Pray all you want for a specific outcome, but the plain truth of the matter is, at some point a person has to roll up their sleeves and go to work. Prayer is the alternative to actually doing something.

    But starvation and cruelty--we need to do more than leave these people to pray for relief, we should help them however we can

    So, you see Maeve, ultimately human action is the only thing that moves the process forward. If a person or society simply prays to god for help, then sits idly by waiting for a miracle, nothing will happen.

    I say God answered my prayer because the strange timing of things made me think it took place outside of me. But I don't know how it happened.I don't know what God is exactly--is he in our mind?

    I'm not dismissing your experience, but your comment above betrays that you're not as convinced of divine intervention as you indicate (including your newly converted disciples here).

    When a concrete, plausible explanation for something is not apparent, the religiously inclined automatically default to "miracle" or "God did it". Faith is the surrogate when evidence is lacking.

    Let me give you a real-life example: several years ago I decided to build a pergola in my back yard. I thought a week or two about a design but was not sure how to proceed. At the first of the month, I received a woodworker's/handyman magazine I had a subscription to. I opened the package, and the title of the magazine was, "Pergolas- Designing and Building the Perfect Pergola".

    Did I pray to god to send me a pergola design? No.

    However, had I been praying to god regarding something as mundane as a pergola design, I would've chocked it up to Divine intervention, a miraculous answer to my prayer.

    The reality: That magazine was coming in the mail as-is, whether I prayed about it or not.

    Actually, believing god answers your prayer while ignoring the vast majority of humanity's prayers is quite arrogant. It indicates you believe you are so special that god can and does suspend the laws of the universe just long enough for you to get what you want...while god ignores everyone else.

    ---

    Miss.Fit- thanks for the additional anecdote. I've seen that one a hundred times. I'm truly underwhelmed.

  • AndDontCallMeShirley
    AndDontCallMeShirley

    Incidentally, I'm sure it was either completely ignored or dismissed by certain individuals here, but read this on page 3:

    post by Ultimate Axiom:

    Have you heard of the Great Prayer Experiment?
  • Comatose
    Comatose

    In the recent past as some JWs were trying to convince me of my wrong thinking, I was told about the answers to a few prayers.

    In one a young child who is very poor and has only one school outfit is teased and made fun of. The child prays for cloths, but then feels bad for praying about such a trivial matter so the child says another prayer saying sorry. The next day a kind JW drops off their child's unneeded clothing. JW is convinced of a kind and loving god answering prayers. The JW doesn't think about the starving children who prayed that night. The JW doesn't think about the kids praying their dad doesn't rape them that night. The JW enjoys that personal connection to god, that warm feeling of love. Must be nice to be on gods good list.

  • AndDontCallMeShirley
    AndDontCallMeShirley

    I didn't want the end of the world to come on 12-12-12.

    So, I prayed to god that he not allow the end to come on that day.

    The end didn't come.

    See, god answered my prayer.

    Ironically, the religious zealots who were enthusiastically praying for the end to come on 12-12-12 were disappointed. I guess god's answer to their prayers was "no". He works in mysterious ways.

  • humbled
    humbled

    Actually, believing god answers your prayer while ignoring the vast majority of humanity's prayers is quite arrogant. It indicates you believe you are so special that god can and does suspend the laws os the universe just long enough for you to get what you want...while god ignores everyone else.

    ADCMS, I am in no better shape than the vast majority of humanity when it comes to prayer. What I cannot do on my own is what I pray for. I do not bother to pray for something that I can and should do. But there is so much that I believe I cannot change. Can you see that that is a problem, too? Have you never been overwhelmed by disaster?

    What can you say to a child who is hungry who has not the power nor means to change a violent world around her, who cannot prevent the cruelty nor the policies that put such misery into her world? Should I tell her NOT to pray for a bread crust because she and I have the power to change it? Furthermore, she is arrogant to ask for a bread crust--it shows how superior she feels to the little boy next door who is as hungry as she is?

    If LisaRose says she has never had a prayer answered and I say I have, I am prepared to be the fool here and say I am wrong about my opinion. It won't change what happened to me. It just means I'm silly. Or ignorant.

    If I say I don't know whether the thing we call God is merely a coincidence or a phenomenon of string theory, it doesn't matter, does it? I refuse to ask God for a cure for my cancer, I think that is an unfounded hope.

    I find in my wonderings about all these questions of God and prayer if the key isn't this: to ask for the power to love in hard situations. I wonder about this.

    It requires the action to bring what remedies we can, to put aside selfishness. Certainly my own unformed intentions in my prayer helped me see my own selfishness. And no prayer that has since been answered has varied from that theme.

    I too, have wondered if I am praying for help and being assaulted in any of the terrible ways that villagers in these countries have suffered: Nicaragua, Rwanda, Vietnam, etc. I wonder if I will love others still? Or will I become like the ones who rape me and brutally kill my children and my husband?

    After God healed my spirit--or perhaps I did myself, whatever suits you--We, my little girls and I used to pray for "The boat people and all the little children" at meal times and bed time. I had heard that pirates in the South China Sea were boarding the overloaded boatloads of refugees trying to escape the horrors of Pol Pot and the retributions that were following in the wake of the SE asian wars. One particular account sickened me. a woman was left adrift in the ocean having beenwitness to the drowning of her children,the murder of her husband and enduring the gang rape of the pirates. At first opportunity we opened our home to sponsor some refugees. Yes, my atheist/agnostic husband did too. We had no utilities and it was a stretch for all of us (had a baby boy by then). Love moved us, prayer was a part of the matter.

    The love that I perceived as God's gift of healing was possibly what you say it is--a natural occurance. But I have to ask for that love allthe time. My husband alternately praises me and complains of me. I am in a constant search to understand what this world is about. There has been a lot of trouble in my family. Drugs, violence, prison. And also much that is wonderful.

    I dread my inadequacy. I do live with a measure of peace--but I have lived with a lot of violence too.

    I am horrified as you are by the daily misery in the world, ADCMS. In small and large ways I can only understand that love may be the only portion I have to give. 33 years ago the woman in that boat was found by Christian missionaries. Was that a good or bad thing? It made me think for the first time-- what did they have to say to HER about the love of God? I doubted they knelt down with her to tell her the way of salvation. The horror is overwhelming. Is it better to love or not?

    Do you really think me arrogant to pray that I can love people that treat me badly? Do you think me foolish that I cannot generate love in my own heart to do these things? I don't find myself able to do it. some day it may be found that people like myself were tricked into believing in god by their primitive prejudices. It may be so. But I am still going to pray and hope I am fooled again.

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