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The Power of Prayer

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
Do you believe in prayer?

If so, what do you think prayer accomplishes?

Up front, I don't pray, don't really feel it accomplishes anything. Even when I was religious it seemed weird to me to be praying to ask God for something like helping folks in need when shouldn't God already know who is in need and what is needed?

Even the Lord's prayer, still asking for stuff and to be forgiven. Shouldn't God know all of this stuff without us needing to pray about it?

What does prayer do for you?
 

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I would say that I do pray, but it's not petitionary as you described. It's more just an offering of thanksgiving and gratitude to being alive and for the Beauty of Life. It's just to breathe in Reality and exhale it as a prayer to all that is. There's no need to ask for anything, as you pointed out.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
Do you believe in prayer?

If so, what do you think prayer accomplishes?

Up front, I don't pray, don't really feel it accomplishes anything. Even when I was religious it seemed weird to me to be praying to ask God for something like helping folks in need when shouldn't God already know who is in need and what is needed?

Even the Lord's prayer, still asking for stuff and to be forgiven. Shouldn't God know all of this stuff without us needing to pray about it?

What does prayer do for you?

After my spiritual side is leaning a different direction, I've been more pulled to prayer. I don't believe in a deity/god; so, if using the common definition of the word, I don't. How I pray now makes me see more things happening I wouldn't have seen before. For example, I was looking up prayer today and a couple days and you asked about prayer. Probably had something to express but didn't feel like creating a thread.

What makes me a little uncomfortable is I always associated prayer as praying to someone(s). (gods, spirits, whatever) Once I get out of that "prayer needs to be" I would be praying all the time. It keeps me at peace.

I am becoming a part of the Universalist Unitarian Church. I guess you can say I'm entering into a covenant church rather than creed. So, the prayers we do is service and helping rather than focused on passive communication through common belief. Of course, each person is different in how they connect with whatever source(s) they view helps them in life and service.

I like Saint Francis Prayer. Some Catholic prayers are beautiful regardless my practice.
 
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Woberts

The Perfumed Seneschal
Nope, there's no point in wasting your time praying.
Especially if you're muslim, since their prayers are a whole arduous affair.
Try reading a good book instead.
Lately, I've been reading George R. R. Martin's fantasy epic.
The good one.;)
 

spirit_of_dawn

Active Member
Do you believe in prayer?

If so, what do you think prayer accomplishes?

Up front, I don't pray, don't really feel it accomplishes anything. Even when I was religious it seemed weird to me to be praying to ask God for something like helping folks in need when shouldn't God already know who is in need and what is needed?

Even the Lord's prayer, still asking for stuff and to be forgiven. Shouldn't God know all of this stuff without us needing to pray about it?

What does prayer do for you?


Yes, but God wants us to pray to him even though He knows what we want.

Stop praying and you'll soon completely forget about God. Pray and ask God for everything, then you'll always have God in your mind and will remember Him. When you always have God in your mind you'll think twice before doing things you shouldn't be doing and on the other you'll always try to please Him and be a good servant.
 

SalixIncendium

अग्निविलोवनन्दः
Staff member
Premium Member
Do you believe in prayer?

No. I don't need to.

If so, what do you think prayer accomplishes?

An agreement with oneself to affect desired change.

Up front, I don't pray, don't really feel it accomplishes anything. Even when I was religious it seemed weird to me to be praying to ask God for something like helping folks in need when shouldn't God already know who is in need and what is needed?

Even the Lord's prayer, still asking for stuff and to be forgiven. Shouldn't God know all of this stuff without us needing to pray about it?

What is God?

What does prayer do for you?

Absolutely nothing.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
Yes, but God wants us to pray to him even though He knows what we want.

Stop praying and you'll soon completely forget about God. Pray and ask God for everything, then you'll always have God in your mind and will remember Him. When you always have God in your mind you'll think twice before doing things you shouldn't be doing and on the other you'll always try to please Him and be a good servant.

Not to be too snarky but if God showed up once in a while, said "Hey, here I am", maybe did a couple of impressive God like tricks. Make everyone aware of God's presence.
 

Deeje

Avid Bible Student
Premium Member
Do you believe in prayer?

If so, what do you think prayer accomplishes?

Up front, I don't pray, don't really feel it accomplishes anything. Even when I was religious it seemed weird to me to be praying to ask God for something like helping folks in need when shouldn't God already know who is in need and what is needed?

Even the Lord's prayer, still asking for stuff and to be forgiven. Shouldn't God know all of this stuff without us needing to pray about it?

What does prayer do for you?

This is a good question....and a subject that has turned people away from God because of what they mistakenly think prayer is.

To establish what prayer is, we first of have to understand what it isn't.

God is not a genie, there to grant our every wish. Some people ask the most ridiculous things of God on that assumption. I am always amazed that in any given situation on social media, Americans particularly will be praying for people who are in trouble, on the assumption that it is God's job to make things better; that prayer will somehow magically make a miracle happen. How often does it make no difference at all? So our attitude toward prayer tells us something about our expectations.....however unrealistic. Having our hopes dashed is spiritually crippling because people begin to think that God doesn't care...or worse that he isn't even there.

The subject of our prayers also reveals what we expect prayer to accomplish. For example, some people will pray for their own, or a loved one's cancer to be cured....or their child to recover from a serious affliction or illness. Is this realistic? Is God sitting in heaven on his throne giving a thumbs up or a thumbs down to prayer requests?
Is that what the Bible says? Far from it.

OK, now we need to know what prayer is.

The Lord's prayer is a sample of the the appropriate subject matter for prayer. Is there anything in that prayer that leads us to believe that God will make a miracle happen for us? Or is it realistic in its approach to God, in that it leads us to be grateful for what we have, and to treat others as we would like to be treated?

The first things mentioned by Jesus were God's name to be "hallowed"....sanctified...set apart as holy.
Then there is mention of God's Kingdom to come so that everything on earth can be as good as it is in heaven.
Herein lies the true basis of our prayers.....everything is tied up with what God's Kingdom will accomplish, once it "comes". How many people have any idea about what God's Kingdom actually is?

As a demonstration of what that will mean, we have the miracles of the first century to show us first hand what it will accomplish...Jesus, as King of that Kingdom was healing the sick, and even raising of the dead. But these demonstrations were not to last. The full benefits of the kingdom will "come" only when it is ruling the whole earth.

Daniel prophesied that God's Kingdom will come with great force, crushing all corrupt human governments out of existence and replacing them. (Daniel 2:44) Once that has been accomplished, only then will the miracles of the first century be repeated on a grand scale. (Revelation 21:2-4)

People are not taught what prayer is for, and what it accomplishes. Jesus showed us that through his own prayers he needed God's help and strength to endure what he had to face. He did not pray for God to take away his suffering but to sustain him in spite of it. If God's own son needed God's help to endure what this world threw at him, (1 John 5:19) then what does that say about us? We have the same enemy...the one who made Job suffer.....the same one who put temptations before the Christ.....this is his world and he will make sure that people suffer and if he can mislead even Christians into thinking that God doesn't care about them, then he will.

Even in all our distress, we can still find things to be thankful for. In fact it is therapeutic to do so. It makes the mountains seem more like molehills and strengthens our reliance on God to see us through any trial.

I always love the concluding portion of the book of Job.....no one seems to highlight what the end of his trials meant for him.

Job 42:12; 16-17....
"So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning. For now he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 teams of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He also gave Job seven more sons and three more daughters. . . . Job lived 140 years after that, living to see four generations of his children and grandchildren. 17 Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life."

If Job endured all those trial and came out victorious, so can we. Job was tested by the devil, but in reality, he represents all of us. He proved that the devil was a liar and a false accuser by never losing his faith in God even under the most extreme circumstances.
God blessed Job, and rewarded his faith and his endurance. He will see life again as a believer in the resurrection where he will have all of his children to enjoy the rest of eternity.

I believe in the power of prayer because it is an appeal to God for the strength to sustain our faith and not to unrealistically treat it as a means to a miracle. I believe that the miracles will come in due time, but for now we are no match for the devil without the help that God supplies. Prayer is our lifeline.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
Do you believe in prayer?

If so, what do you think prayer accomplishes?

Up front, I don't pray, don't really feel it accomplishes anything. Even when I was religious it seemed weird to me to be praying to ask God for something like helping folks in need when shouldn't God already know who is in need and what is needed?

Even the Lord's prayer, still asking for stuff and to be forgiven. Shouldn't God know all of this stuff without us needing to pray about it?

What does prayer do for you?

I was listening to a Dharma talk a couple years ago, and it mentioned that when we pray it is not the subject of prayer, we can't control the outcome if there is one. It is for the person praying. So, like/as meditation, it's not asking or talking to someone moreso than it is a meditative conversation or reflection to help oneself.

I'm watching these non-christian sermons, and the pastor mentions another way to pray. Many people are uncomfortable with the words pray, god, and so forth. However, the meaning of god could be a whole number of things. It's a placeholder, just a word, that we interact with (say act of gratitude) so we can do good things. Optional of course.

So, instead of praying to god, pray to Gratitude. Pray to Love. Pray to Charity. Change the abstract foreign word to the object of an act and value you understand. Deify it (see it as a personal value), and follow that value(s) as a foundation for your life decisions etc.

People pray all the time. When we think out loud to ourselves, we pray. When we tell ourselves "you know, I should tell my mother I love her" is praying. It's reflection and an act that changes you.

It could be meant for an outside party, like god. It could be for oneself. A number of things. When you think deeper, it makes more sense. Of course, you don't have to do it. I just think many are stuck on the word without understanding the meaning apart from its common use.
 

2ndpillar

Well-Known Member
Do you believe in prayer?

If so, what do you think prayer accomplishes?

Up front, I don't pray, don't really feel it accomplishes anything. Even when I was religious it seemed weird to me to be praying to ask God for something like helping folks in need when shouldn't God already know who is in need and what is needed?

Even the Lord's prayer, still asking for stuff and to be forgiven. Shouldn't God know all of this stuff without us needing to pray about it?

What does prayer do for you?

As for those who have found "His kingdom", and "His righteousness" (Matthew 6:33), God provides without asking. For the sinner, God does not hear their prayer (John 9:31), and if they should choose to repent, and confess their sins, it would be wise to find someone "righteous" to pray for them for their healing (James 5:15-16). The problem comes up that you will have a difficult time finding some one righteous.
 
You can pray, sometimes God will answer, sometimes he wont.

Also, why should God answer your every beck and call, aspeasally if you only call on him when your in trouble?

The goal should be to connect to God. Your subject to him, not the other way around.
 
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