To christians, does prayer help you?

He could accomplish that purpose without letting things get as far out of hand as they routinely do. This endless cycle of letting things get very bad in order to fix them and put on a show or make some kind of a theatrical point should be beneath god. That puts him on the same maturity level as a writer of a B-grade action novel.

I stopped worrying about all this a long time ago. It is what it is. That mindset is the cornerstone of Zen.

 

These are my thoughts. Not exactly the ideas of any church.
Growing up, (southern baptist) I was always taught to pray "God's will be done". Basically, you're handing your problems over to him to deal with in the way that he intends. You will not interfere. God will do what He is going to do, not matter what you say or do. It's not fate, we still have free will, but bigger things that are beyond us, sickness, death, that is His territory. I tend to only pray when I'm feeling alone and lost in life. It's not the "right" way. But it's how I do. Praying when you have a problem that you can't figure out, to me, is kinda like talking things out with your friends. Even when they say nothing, you tend to see things more clearly, just from voicing the problem.
I have witnessed a miracle from prayer though. 5 years ago my grandmother was dying. Her last night I was in her room with her reading the bible. We knew that she would probably be gone by morning and we were all taking turns being with her. She was out of it, totally non-responsive. She'd had R. Arthritis for the last 40 years, her hands were severly deformed. I prayed to God asking for a sign that He was with her in her last hours. I said, I would believe he was there if he would straighten out her hands. Then I went back to reading. My Aunt came in a few minutes later to sit with her mother. She sat down and went to hold my grandmother's hand, but stopped in amazement because (you guessed it) her fingers were completely straight. She called the rest of the family in and as soon as everybody had seen her hands they went back to their usual crookedness. She died that next morning. So I do believe, when He sees a real need, He will show Himself.

 

Absolutely right. You really have no choice about trusting god. It's going to be his way. That kind of prayer has some value, in terms of giving yourself a reality check.

 

Yes, prayer is one the greatest gifts god has given us and can be of great benefit to us in our hours of need, although that is not its sole purpose.

But if one is not very careful about what you believe prayer to be, what its purpose is, what it accomplishes, how it works, what you pray about and who you pray to, one can end up with more paradoxes than you can shake a stick at.

All honest, earnest and sincere prayers are answered by God, although as has been mentioned sometimes the answer is no.

Also it is interesting to note that not all prayers are heard by God. Such as the prayers of Atheists who are merely trying to test God, for instance the “Atheist’s proof” that there is no God, which involves as a group getting together and praying for God show himself or something of that sort and when He doesn’t, then they say; look, no God. Do they really believe that their prayers are honest, earnest, sincere and from their heart.

The Bible is filled with examples of prayer and statements on how prayer works and how to properly pray, taken as a whole these things teach you how to pray in an acceptable way, a way that will be of the most benefit to you.

To start, if you have a little time and are interested, you might pick up a Bible concordance, look up the word prayer and look up all the citations, then you will begin to get a better picture of what prayer is what it does and how to use it properly. But don’t just read a few and say now I know what prayer is but try and read them all, try to remember them and then meditate on them to get them to fit together as a well rounded whole.

But to simply answer your question; Yes, it does.

 

I believe that prayer is a very important part of worship to God and can be a stronghold for the believer. Paul wrote to "pray incessantly", which is what I try to do on almost any occasion. A heartfelt prayer, at anytime, any place can be very refreshing and takes some of the burden of the many hard situations that arise in this lifetime off of oneself and shows to God that you trust in his ways and not your own.

 

yes prayer helps , i was raised in a catholic , christian home , and i pray the hail marys and i pray contempory prayers i also pray though listening to the local christian radio station wgts out of takoma park md . i pray most of the tyme even when i am walking , it is also about good thoughts and looking around and seeing the world in all the glory

 

I love this.

In response to Pauls declaration that we should pray without ceasing, I have taken to wearing a prayer rope (although mine is made of a black material with blue beads) as a reminder to pray constantly. Also it is used to count recistations of the "Prayer of the Heart" as per the Eastern style of devotion.

 

Yes it does for me.

 

These are all some interesting views on prayer.

I have an experience, maybe god answered my prayer maybe not. i believe god did.

I have a problem, i smoke cigarettes. i smoke cannabis, i dont really think smoking it is a problem, but the way ive began to view it is that i should be high all the time, and ive been not able to enjoy life non high.

i prayed to God, and asked him to shift my thoughts and desires away from smoking and cannabis, two things which i have been putting before everything else in life now that i took time to think about it, and well generally just partying and lifing for my own pleasure in general.

i asked to help me find ways to enjoy life without being stoned all the time. and to shift my habit mind away from cigarettes.

well ive felt happy, without cannabis, ive been enjoying time spent with friends, music, and just having fun activities, witohut the herb. if some comes around to smoke, i will gladly partake or i have some extra money around i will by some to smoke on. but when i come down its not like oh i need to get high again or im scrabbling money to get some bud, its more like ah that was fun, next time will come someday but im not worried about it. i think it worked, cause cannabis isnt physically addicting, i was just putting my mind too much into getting high, which is my abuse of it.

and with cigarettes, i usually wake up smoke first thing, and smoke through out the day, probably about a half a pack. now smoking a cigarette isnt first on my list. i only smoke 3 a day at most. its really nice, i enjoy my cigarette but im not attached to them as i have been.

maybe my mind changed after the prayer cause i started thinking about these things more, or maybe god opened my mind to realize i dont need to be like that.

but one question i have. well i was wondering about "Gods will", does this mean he actaully has some sort of plan for my life? something that ican do in my life path to help others , that i would be suited for?

i would like that explained to me.

 

This could be nothing more than the power of positive thinking. If you expect a change in your thinking, it is likely to happen. People of all religions report experiencing this.

 

thats a good point, i agree.

i said God helped me, but to be honest im not really a huge believer in god, im very skeptic of the whole idea actually.

but yeah, i did kinda start thinking, well there is more to life than being stoned all the time ,although i enjoy smoking bud you know, its not the point to life is to get high.

and also something nothing to do with that.

im alot less anxious now, i can kinda just enjoy thinking to myself, sitting home alone listening to music, i dont have to be out with people all the time to be enjoying my life.

i enjoy just being myself and i like myself and can enjoy things without having someone around. being alone is kinda enjoyable now, not all the time but time to myself is charished now actually.

just a little ramble on a positive change ive made, small but important to me.


but still, what is "gods will"?

 

God's will: A cynical religious might say it is whatever you want it to be.

 

God's will is a list of what he's going to leave to his children when he dies?

 

Some christians say that since God already knows everything, the main purpose of prayer is to change the person who is doing the praying. I believe that prayer time and the meditation period before or after can have a very positive effect on someone. It has a lot in common with Zen meditation, which is not focused on a Higher Power.

Like the three blind men trying to describe an elephant, all religions have something useful to tell us about ourselves. They have all discovered things that are true and insightful about life, through the combined experiences of many wise people.

The breakthrough that you describe, learning to enjoy quiet, introspective time alone, is similar to the Zen concept of enlightenment. It is the first step on a long road that leads to genuine maturity and a lifetime of learning.

I do believe in God, but I do not believe that he interacts with us as much as most people would prefer. He wants you to discover that he has already given you nearly everything that you need for a good life. He feels no obligation to answer all of our questions, even though he knows that many people write books and put words in his mouth to make it appear that he is willing to tell all. Be skeptical of anyone who speaks for God.

Every time that I thought I knew God's will for my life, I found out a few years later that I had been off by a mile. A little humility is worth a lot, when it comes to understanding the mind of God.

 

haha, thats funny i liked that.

 

that makes sense to me, thats one erason im kinda turned off to religion, why would god put all his energy into caring about human affairs, hes got a whole universe to be interested in, plus whatever beyond that hes got.

it seems kinda self centered to think god is all involved in what humans are doing, though we are a species in a universe of his, he would care some id guess.

yeah, its very good to be skeptical of people speaking of God, or anything for that matter.

that zen stuff sounds interesting man, im gonna look into it.



i really like your signature man, the more wrong someone i, the more sure he is he is right about it.

 

God helps those who help themselves

excellent words to live by.

 

God may or may not have any limitations on his time, effort, or attention. A better reason for him not to care about a lot of our concerns is that so many of our problems are of our own making. People constantly want things made easier for them, or to be rescued from the consequences of their own actions, instead of learning hard lessons.

Why do people return to a particular church after a first visit? Because they like what they get there. If you are a pastor and want to succeed, you learn to give people what they want. You tell them what they want to hear. Most people want to be told that they are special, and that God cares deeply about every trivial problem in their lives.

If you stand in a pulpit and tell people to quit feeling sorry for themselves, get a life, get their shit together, and get the fuck over themselves, do you think that would motivate people to put money in the offering plate every week? You would be out of a job before sundown.

At my age, I respect people a lot more when they are honest about things that may be difficult to listen to. Such as, God may not have a plan for you to do great and important things that make the world a better place. Most of us may need to learn to accept a much smaller role, whether that makes our ego feel good or not.

It is a koan, which is sentence or two designed to make you think deeply about a concept or idea that might seem on the surface to be a paradox or impossibility on some level. Buddhists have been generating them for centuries, so there are quite a few interesting ones out there.

Eastern people are not the only ones who can do this. Navajo Indian proverb: If you want to know what you are truly like, look at the things you dislike in other people. I hate that one, because it is so true.

New Age thought takes worthwhile concepts and teachings from most major world religions, including christianity, Hindu faith, Tao, Jain, Zen Buddhism, and classical Buddhism. It takes very little from Muslim teachings because they are mostly about external actions, not the inner man.

 

koan huh? so basically its saying what you hate in other people, is the exact things you are doing yourself?

yeah, if a preacher said all that and people took his advice, i doubht they would want a preacher, if they realized that most problems in life is from our own doing and things we want can be achieved by our own human efforts, why would they care about what a preacher wanted to tell them, if they lived for themselves?

you make me think dude, i like that.