Prayer

by larc 23 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  DakotaRed

  Dutchie, I hated when the Bro Talbots got up to pray. Was it really a prayer or trying impress everyone on how long winded they were? Isn't there a scripture about praying in public to impress others?

  *** Rbi8 Mark 12:38-40 *** 38 And in his teaching he went on to say: Look out for the scribes that want to walk around in robes and want greetings in the marketplaces 39 and front seats in the synagogues and most prominent places at evening meals. 40 They are the ones devouring the houses of the widows and for a pretext making long prayers; these will receive a heavier judgment.

  I sometimes wonder if they even read their own Bibles.

  Lew W
• 

  ChuckD

  I am rethinking my position on prayer lately, but not on God. I do not believe that God exists at all, and therefore do not think that one could communicate with God through prayer. However, I am starting to consider the possibility that prayer or simply taking some quiet time to review and state your wants and desires, may serve to get this message across to your own unconscious mind. Mind you, there is no real proof that an unconscious exists either, but as far as I am concerned it is far more likely to exist than God.

  Edited by - ChuckD on 10 August 2002 22:10:33
• 

  Farkel

  larc,

  For a man of your education, you really are a dimwit!

  : Now that I am a long away from religion, I have to ask, what is the need for this prayer thing? Now, God knows everything, right? Well, so what is the need for prayer? If you do feel a need to pray, wouldn't be good idea to keep it short? After all, God is busy with billions of people dialing him up every day. All you have to say to God, is, I need help. You do not need to go into detail. God knows the detail, and anything you say is redundant to him, so please keep it short. To do otherwise is impolite and an imposition on God's time.

  Now follow me very carefully while I present a very short "Prayer for Dummies" that even you can understand:

  1) God screwed us up.

  2) He knows he screwed us up.

  3) We're screwed up.

  4) All but lunatics have figured out we're screwed up.

  5) God wants us to pray to Him and tell him we screwed up because we're screwed up and God screwed us up because two screwed up people ate a piece of fruit. (Bible-Based)

  6) God doesn't do dick after we tell him we're screwed up, we're sorry to Him we're screwed up, and we understand he had a terrific reason for screwing us up to begin with.

  7) If you don't do 1-6, God will kill you, because you're so screwed up you didn't pray and ask for forgiveness from the God that screwed you up in the first place.

  There. Now do you understand?

  Once you understand that this is all Bible-Based(tm), you won't have any confusion about it again.

  Farkel

  Edited by - Farkel on 10 August 2002 22:15:18
• 

  plmkrzy

  LOL! It does seem like some folks think if they pray longer then it will be more valid or something.

  I'm sure God knows when to change channels.
• 

  Undecided

  Since there are millions of prayers going on at any given time, God has a big computer in the sky that catorizes them and ramdomly assigns a yes or no answer and sends out an angel to get it done. It's sort of like a lottery, you just might get lucky and move that mountain into the sea.Mark 11:23,24.

  Ken P.
• 

  SpiderMonkey

  More like a lucky 8-ball, if you accept the usual definitions of God and prayer in the first place. But I don't accept those definitions at all. God is us, and prayers work (sometimes) because we have the power to make prayers, wishes, hopes, dreams, goals, or whatever else you want to call them, work.
• 

  Solace

  I pray to thank God for my blessings and my sanity. I never take either for granted.
• 

  puzzled

  One of my daily prayers

  "Lord, please don't let me kill anyone today"

  So far so good.
• 

  Yadirf

  Says Larc:

  Another thought on prayer: one of the common statements at a home prayer, is, thank you God for the food we eat. I think we should thank the farmers that grew it. I don't believe God has anything to do with farming any more.

  Why thank those who "grew it"? The farmers do recieve compensation for their crop when they sell it, do they not? Certainly you don't receive their produce for free, do you Larc? Also, isn't it the norm for the seller to thank the buyer for their business? You seem to have it all backwards, Larc!
• 

  Reborn2002

  Yadirf emerges from the shadows of antiquity!

  FredHall gets banned, comforter gets exposed for being a liar, YouKnow displays his usual cold-hearted rants of murder, gloom, and destruction, and NOW Yadirf returns!

  What a day.