Do you believe in the power of prayer?

by cab1000 29 Replies latest jw friends

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  cab1000

  Today, I was talking to a close family member....he owns many stores of a business...He was telling me about a HUGE deal going down for him, in his favor. He is an elder. A lot of brothers work for him. He would not make this up, expecially for my benifit...

  He said, "do you know how this deal got started? I was feeling really down, and needed some help, business was down, things were going badly. I was really low, and I was driving in my car, and I started to pray, outloud, and ask God for help. And, in about 30 mins, the phone rang, and it was ( The business deal person )."

  After he said that, I said, ( coldly I think ), I am sure Bill Gates prayed to God when he was not doing well, too...

  The story does kinda freak me out a little. It makes me wonder....

  ~cab
• 

  Dan-O

  When it comes to 'talking it over with with G Hoover', I think I'm just as well off talking to the cat or to the spirit of my dead dog. People pray, but I think they get a lot further by getting off their buns & making things happen on their own.
• 

  cab1000

  Yes, fellow hoosier, I agree...

  I think it is coincidence. But all those stories out there.....and this one from a trused person...

  The biggest problem I have with it, is that it now concretes his beliefs.....HE can not doubt a God that has blessed him!

  ~cab
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  Daunt

  Ya I feel the same way. People say they've prayed and recieved something almost immediately that helped them out but at the same time my parents prayed all of their lives and still have money trouble and dissobedient kids in their eyes. Seems to be more random. Just people like to call it divine when the randomness happens in their favor. But at times it does get freaky.
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  cab1000

  Yeah, Daunt, freaky sometimes...

  Sports people pray for a win, Performers pray for a good show, its endless.... It must be random....

  I mean, he does own a business, I guess its not too far fetched to beleive that another business would want to make a deal with him...its not like it did not happen to other business like his, it did.

  ~cab
• 

  upside/down

  Only when things go my way...

  u/d (of the "God" helps those who help themselves, the rest get f*cked class)
• 

  dh

  I think prayer can be very powerful, but I don't think it necessarily has anything to do with God.
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  Frog

  Prayre is just another way of verbalising what the mind and heart wants...if you pray about it, it usually means you have proactively done something about the situation. People like to attribute their successes to a higher power because it makes them feel loved and cared for, the reality is that we make our own way in this world, with of course help from those we enlist.
• 

  alw

  im inclined to agree with frog.

  i remember when i moved from one part of aussie to this part,and only being baptised a few months, was still very zealous, to pioneer, what a joke that was. i finished my job up, came here to clean windows and pioneer, with 3 young children,within 6 months we were practically destitute.

  one sat afternoon i prayed to god to help,hence a phone call from another business man offering me work cleaning windows on a regular basis, it saved us from then on our business just went ahead.

  im not saying it was the power of prayer, it may have had something to do with the little ad i had in a free paper, thats where he got my phone no. from.

  mr.alw
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  SallySue

  Yes.

  But... God is not just a nice old dude up there waiting to give us everything we ask for. The best thing I like to do when praying is praise God for all His wonderful works.

  The Bible does say that you have not because you ask not. So, if we ask with a praising, believing heart He is faithful.