How to pray? Bible prayers. Answers to prayer.
What has saved me from depression? I largely credit prayer. (Dianna is my wife)
If you want logical explanations, you will most likely surmise the futility of prayer. But if you want results, then you will pray.
An atheist can scorn my prayer times. He can dismember its logic: “If God knows everything and is already motivated by compassion, then why does He need us to pray?” Good argument.
An onslaught of articles, books and programs urges that church is irrelevant. But I still go to church.
So why do I pray? Plain and simply, it works. (It doesn’t reason.)
If you want powerful reasons, become a philosophy major or a lawyer and feel proud of your rhetorical capabilities. If you want powerful results, pray and don’t fret about the anti-God hubbub.
I have seen answers to prayer. I cannot deny healings, salvations, turnarounds, miracles of money. My marriage is happy. Three times God healed my back (from separate injuries).
When it comes to prayer, why? is more important than what? when? where? and how? If you don’t know why, you won’t pray. But if you pray, what, when, where and how are all secondary because God looks mostly at your heart.
Mustard Seed Budget 
Sound advice and inspirational.
Thank you. Thank you for your smile!
And when prayers seemingly go unanswered? When the healing doesn’t happen? Money doesn’t come? When loved ones remain unsaved?
I assure you I am not posting this to be rude. I really admire your great faith, and forgive me if I am curious as to how you would respond to unanswered prayers, which can seem to be so much more common than answered ones.
Thank you for responding. I appreciate your sincerity. I don’t take you as rude at all. I could probably go on and on and on with words, but I don’t think they would satisfy you. Probably the best thing I can do is offer you my friendship. Well, I certainly don’t want to start an argument. I want to support you fully as a fellow human being who is perfectly justified in asking questions or feeling troubled by your experiences. Thanks for asking!
I hope I am not out of place here but I would like to throw in my 2 cents. I went through many unanswered prayers. This may sound strange but the unanswered prayers only made my Faith and Love for God grow, how and why I don’t know, unless God was building determination. I refused to argue with my son and told him I loved him. With detremination and love the word argue doesn’t even enter for a battle to begin now. I thank God for this. For me answered prayers are not always the best answer. Answers given for me was patience. We all grasp or at least I feel we do to God’s love many many ways. Sometimes we may even feel abandoned, but don’t give up on God.
Hi Billie, Great to see you here again! I think you have discovered an amazing and profound truth: “the unanswered prayers only made my faith and love for God grow, how and why I don’t know.” You are on to something that needs to be explored, fleshed out and experienced!
Thank you, I believe I am on a great journey experiencing the grandest adventure in the flesh that one could ever explore, it doesn’t cost anything. You see God’s gift to us all is endless. Mine is my little farm, growing, seeing and experiencing.
There is no such a thing as an unanswered prayer, answers are #1 yes #2 no #3 not yet, or not your way but God’s way as in let God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
A lot of #3s.
Or at least it seems that way a lot of times.
It does work. I know but we need reminding. Thank you.
🙂 Thanks for the smile!
you are so welcome
I pray in order to breath
🙂 You are profound in prayer then!
just simple- HE IS IN ME AND i AM IN HIM, I look at Him and He looks at me,
A dear friend, far too young, died from cancer overnight. Countless people prayed for her, she was an incredible person. I prayed and she still died and I don’t get why. I pray harder as I try to work through these questions.
I’ll pray for you!
Thank God for the power of prayer… thank you for the emphasis. God bless
😀
I’d like to respond to LS. Not to start an argument, but because….isn’t sharing what this is all about? Plus, it’s in me to SHARE. So… if not appropriate, please feel free to delete. Will NOT take personally at all. But when we pray and our prayers go unanswered, my take on it is simply that I still have something to learn, to work through to get to the next step. I know that sounds odd. But I think of God like I would a parent. And most times when a child asks a parent for something they are not ready for a parent will not just say NO, but will also guide them along the way to learn what they need to learn in order to be ready for that “thing” they may want.
As far as death is concerned, my dear friend Richard died for no apparent reason in his sleep almost a year ago. Not sick, not old, not anything at all. But his heart gave out and that was it. Too young. At first I was angry, upset…and then I realized, just like parents sometimes do things I don’t quite understand and seem to be ridiculous, this too is just something I don’t understand from God and seemed somewhat ridiculous. But some day I will understand. Someday maybe it will make sense. But for today, I have to trust in my parent, have faith if you will, that it will be okay.
Lastly, for me, prayer is therapeutic. Its not just about asking for things. Prayer is about being able to be in touch with what is meaningful to you. What is right, what is wrong, what you’d like to do better. Prayer is hope. Prayers is analysis. Prayer is trying to work it out. Prayer is thanks.
I wake every morning and I pray. I call it “writing in my journal” but it’s essentially having a conversation with God. And sometimes I may pose it that way in fact. But prayer to me, works. And it works mostly because even though I may ask for the answers, I know that I may not be ready for them, but when I am…it’s AMAZING. Beautiful and brilliant. And I wish that for everyone. Not to have faith in God, but to have faith in something….
(sorry for rambling… couldn’t help it!).
Dear Carmen, Thanks for sharing. It certainly seems to me like you are sharing, not arguing. I think everybody experiences some kind of “divine injustice” at some time. Some of us go to God and ask why, others pull away from God. Some of us try to make sense of it, others insist there is no sense. These are profound experiences, and no one should belittle another’s pain. For the 33 years I have been a Christian, I have managed to run to God with my pain. Praise Him. Yes, He is my consolation. I love my atheist friends, but is there an atheist who is not an alcoholic?
Ha! You made me laugh! I never really noticed — I don’t think I have many friends who are true Atheist and not many friends who are Alcoholics (thank you Lord!). But that was kinda funny!
Thank you for blog post and response. Made my day!
Peace and blessings to you.
Christopher Higgins said he drank excessively to not be bored with people. He’s dead now. Jean paul Sartre took amphetamines to keep working nonstop to finish his works. They pride themselves on not having an “emotional crutch” and then pick up a far inferior “crutch.”
Amen!
🙂
God doesn’t “need” us to pray in the sense that it benefits him. God would still be God regardless of whether we pray. The things we do, the things he commands us to do our for our benefit. God knows everything, but I don’t. I don’t know that when I prayed I set things into motion that would change my life forever (or the opposite). I’ve always wondered about our purpose here. It certainly couldn’t be to be perfect, because we’re never going to accomplish that, and that which we do accomplish is only done because of grace. So what’s so important that we have to learn here?
I think it’s faith. I really and truly believe faith is a big part of the whole point of everything. To learn how to make belief and hope reality. I don’t claim to understand all the complexities, but I do get the feeling that were we able to see things as they really are we’d be amazed at what even the smallest amount of faith does. The reason why it seems unscientific to the unbelieving is since we’re all unique our faith is tested in unique ways. What works for one won’t work the same way for the other, because we’re just not the same people.
That’s what prayer is partly for—an instrument to exercise our faith (And I love that we use the word exercise! Faith has its own muscle that needs building.) 😀
Jae, as always your insights are so helpful!
Good post, Mike!
I can truly empathize with the question regarding unanswered prayer. I don’t fully understand it, but I have to give God the benefit of the doubt – I know He is good and I know He has good plans, BIG picture plans and I know that “ALL things work together for good…” I know Him and that sustains me while I wait for answers.
Hey, You might want to tell people here what you have suffered for the last ??? years. That would certainly help!
Prayer for me is constant … being aware of Christ in me and me in Christ … it helps me see through Him and with Him… I can go straight to the Father in His name … prayer means abiding in Christ …. if I do that, and learn to see with His eyes, the Bible says in John 15 that my prayers will be answered… Through abiding in Christ, I see other people around me, my family, my own heart, and circumstances somehow with God’s perspective… it helps me see Him as the ONE … in charge of the Universe as well as my life … it makes me realize how profoundly He loves and how much He sees and cares for the details of life… pain and suffering is something I have not come to understand completely, but through prayer I know He can be trusted with it and in it!
Thanks again for the thought provoking post … love it!
Thanks for the thought-provoking comment! Blessings in your journey of experiencing the power of God! 😀
Excellent post. I have had many prayers answered and many prayers not answered. It is easy to get confused with what is right for us and what we want. Sometimes great learning comes from struggling and not giving in. Not having a prayer answered the way we want does not mean we are alone.
I agree, too, that method is important. Words tossed out by rote with no passion behind them will not open the door. For effective prayer, one has to speak from the heart, from the soul. At the same time, being desperate to have life go “your way” will not do it, etiher.
We are here for a reason and that reason is to learn. Having hard times, losing loved ones, desperately needing something – none of these things are punishment. We just don’t see in the NOW how they do or will enrich us. Later, beyond this life, we will see what we have achieved from a much greater perspective than we can possibly know now.
Prayer is hugely important and is the way forward. I think it is also the way we can work with God, not just obtain from God.
Cheers! 🙂
Your insights are powerful. I hope others can read them and benefit from them!
Thank you! 🙂
It is hard when we feel like prayers go unanswered, but I’d have to agree with the person above who said prayers ARE answered as 1)yes 2)no and 3)not yet. I’ve had a lot of not yet, some “no’s” which I am soooooo thankful for now (you know the kind of prayers where you BEG God for something that probably isn’t His will and He REALLY did know better than me in His sovereignty) and many not yet’s. And some really can be disappointing like deaths. I’d rather pray and believe God for someone to be healed and have it not happen than not pray for fear of being disappointed by God. Ultimately, He is the One I trust no matter the outcome. He has proven to be trustworthy! Blessings to you!
thanks for weighing in!
I love that prayer works, it doesn’t reason! 🙂 thank you and God bless you!
😀
Dianna has such a kind and beautiful face!
God answers prayers! Even when he does not say “yes” or “wait”to certain things I pray about he shows me what I need.. Lately God has used my prayers to show me where I am lacking and what I really needed to do besides pray..Which was to fully rely on him and trust him!
Praise God!
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