by LyinEyes 56 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Only people who don't have a close relationship with their fathers, call them by their name. (usually this is true..............I'm sure someone would be quick to tell me the exceptions)
For me, I haven't prayed in a very long time. I just don't.
When I talk about him, I call him God. Jehovah is the name the JW's call him, and that is too freaky for me. No way!!
Only people who don't have a close relationship with their fathers, call them by their name
For me, using the name Jehovah is very comforting. When I talk about God w/other people, I don't use the name Jehovah.....I refer to Him as God. But when I am in the privacy of my own prayers, I prefer using the name Jehovah.
I make no secrets that I belong to a 12 step program.
Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Godas we understood Him.
That always gets me right in the heart. For so many years I was told who/what God was. As an adult I get to understand God in my own terms. I get to make up my mind how to address Him.
This may be off the beaten track, but I look at my children and listen to what they call each other. My youngest (2) calls my oldest (12) "her". Her name is Andrea, but for some reason, my little guy calls her "her". It is endearing and we know what he means when he says it. I think the same w/God. Call him Allah, Jehovah, God, Higher Power.....whatever. It is what it means to you.....as we understand Him.
Hi, I can definitely relate to the "confusion" as to who specifically to pray to (Jehovah, Father, God, Jesus). The "confusion" came with a curse and a blessing, like this:
Haven't been a JW for 12 years, but continued all along to believe in God as Jehovah, yet for the most part felt "too guilty" to pray since I wasn't a JW anymore (that's the "curse" part, feeling too guilty to pray much during those years).
Then after learning late last Fall and this Spring about all of the nasty issues with the WT/JWs (UN, silentlambs, big changes in beliefs over the past decade, etc.), I have been "Freed" from the "guilt" of no longer being in the "true" religion, so the desire and longing to pray has completely re-emerged (that's the "blessing" part), yet now I must admit I am a little "confused" as to "who" to pray to.
I appreciated DJ's comments that I should just express my confusion in my prayer! Duh! I never thought of that, but felt somewhat "embarrassed" about it, so would go 'round the circuit of Jah/God/Father, and Jesus too... (rather than adding Jesus' name at the end as we did as JWs).
Also helpful was reading scootergirl's comments. I sort of was thinking along those lines as well (without knowing anything about the 12-step idea), i.e., that I first learned about God via JW's/Jehovah, and He never "did me wrong" as a JW, so as I understand Him, that's who He is to me. I like the name, personally, and the "TV preachers" use it much more often than I ever would have imagined. So JWs aren't the only ones using it. However, I am trying to say "Father" more often as well, since it is a very intimate expression and I would like to become more comfortable using it.
Hope this makes sense!
And for any of us struggling with this, here's my prayer we all find the peace and love we seek in talking to our God and Father about it.
GRITS
I don't honestly know if praying involves talking to a higher power or is just a way of sorting things out in my mind.
Either way, in my mind Jehovah means Watchtower, so I call him Lord.
..Unless Jehovah is his name and Satan has turned us against the name by using the WTBTS.
Hmmm.
Englishman.
Thanks for all the respones on such a personal thing as praying. It really helps me to see that there are so many here , feeling the same thing. Most everyone seems to accept the fact that we may never understand the things of God, even his name, and exactly who he is, something as JW's we would have never accepted. Being JW , we thought we had an answer for every little detail in the Bible. So coming to terms with saying , "I just dont know", is ok, it takes alot of pressure off. I am trying to get my faith back in God, and right now, I still lean towards God and Jesus being two different people. BUt then again, maybe they are some sort of trinity , that human minds just can not full comprehend. I can accept that as a possiblity too.
The weird thing for me , is when I pray, I feel most comfortable saying, "Dear Father", I really always have, even as a JW, always saying, "Jehovah, Dear Father"in my prayers.
I have even prayed now, directly to Jesus, and find that it is not the sin that the WT told us it was. How could someone who the Bible says loves us so, not deserve a little direct thanks,,,,,,???
I feel good saying thank you and that was just something eles the WT took from all of us.
One thing about my prayers that has not changed, is saying ,"in Jesus name, Amen." To be a prayer wouldnt be "signed", and concluded with out that important part.
I call him "Father" just as Jesus taught us to. It just seems more intimate to me. Now I cannot imagine calling him Jehovah when I pray anymore than I would call my father by his name.
Marianne
Let's get it straight, his name is Humphrey ... I know, he told me one night after I ate some shrooms and ran through the desert nekkid
Anton
DeDe, as many here, I have struggled with the same thing. I too find myself starting off with a prayer saying , Heavenly Father, Dear Father, ummmm, Dear Heavenly Father, and eventually losing interest in the middle of the prayer and the next thing I know, I've totally forgotten that I was praying all together and my thoughts are somewhere else. Isn't that terrible! Like you, it's something that I've really been trying to work on. I too, want a relationship with God. I want to understand and have faith I hope that I am heard when I pray. With our j.w. background, it makes it difficult to know what to believe anymore. I prayed this morning on the way to a job interview and started it off with Dear Heavenly Father. Needless to say, we are confussed!!! I want to believe that God reads my heart and he know's I have a good one. Regardless of the fact that I'm a j.w., I still live a good life and I will always try to be the best person that I can be. That will never change. I hope that God see's that and one day it will count for something.
CC say's that he still pray's and doesn't have a problem with saying Jehovah. I'm with alot of others here though. I have a hard time doing that.
I talk to my late cousin, Sharon. I don't pray to her, but I talk to her all the time.
I'm a goal setter, and I restate my goals often too. Is that prayer?
I tried to use Jehovah, back when I "got out", but it just seemed wrong to me. I always felt that if his name was Yahweh, then why were translators/JW's changing it.
For a long time, I just "expressed myself". It certainly wasn't how I was taught to pray by JW's, but then, everything in my life was changing, and so that prayerful communication had let me down many times. Obviously, I was doing something wrong. For many years, I just talked outloud, quietly, and spoke like I would to someone who "might be out there", someone "who was appointed to look after me".
Now, when I say my pleadings and give thanks, and when I feel compeled to ask why things happen, and what I'm doing that makes them happen. It feels much more natural, and I do it anywhere, anytime, but find the greatest conversations are when I am alone and able to meditate. I talk to my father/mother creators of the universe, just as if they were my parents. I discuss issues, questions, problems. I let them know when I am happy or unhappy, and I "ask" for guidance and direction.
I do it standing, sitting, lying down, driving my car, shopping, walking, whenever I feel like it, secretly without a sound, or outloud. One of the nicest places is in the shower. I never did like the arbitrary "prayers", and the way women had to supplicate themselves beneath the man. It seemed so fake.
Love and LIght,
Sentinel
