Do prayers really work and if they do is it fair?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay take this:

Two nations fighting, both worship the same God, you make your pick, you know the history, happened a lot, still keeps happening.
So both sides ask God to help. Who does he help? If he helps one side over the other is he a Just God? If he does not help anyone is he Just God?

Summer is coming.. half people ask for great weather for Summer Break, the farmers pray for rain. What God does? If he stays out of it entirely, things happen as designed by; nature that is designed by God so no interference per occurance.. so no favorites.

He helps them BOTH as soon as the prayer is one to help him see his fellow man as a brother...as another child of God.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends what you define as "working"...
I mean, if you are using God as your personal Genie to wish for what you want and assuming that you have all the answers and if you don't get what you want then that is evidence for there being no God. Then no, prayer doesn't really "work."

But we have such a limited understanding of God. And we don't have the ability to foresee how adversity and/or tragedy that one person experiences can often open the door for the betterment of humanity as a whole. Suffering of a few often leads to salvation of the many...a better path...a cure...hope. We learn and adapt and pave the way for others. Suffering leads to compassion and love and communion with others and healing. There are millions of examples of beauty that is borne of despair. And if you pray for God to hold you, surround you, and show you the transformational healing of His love, that is where prayer is a gift. We are only human so we can only conceive of the here and now. But existence with God is infinite. A relationship with God is not a wishing well. It's a journey.

But but but.. isn't it like most people operate? There is the faithful crowd that gives God something...like worship and then in return they pray and ask.. so it is kind of like bank.. you deposit you withdraw..

Then there is another kind, the best.. people who do not believe in God, do not worship god but deep down they feel entitled to be his children because when s---t hits the fan they pray their butts off and hope for miracle. The best kind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay take this:

Two nations fighting, both worship the same God, you make your pick, you know the history, happened a lot, still keeps happening.
So both sides ask God to help. Who does he help? If he helps one side over the other is he a Just God? If he does not help anyone is he Just God?

Summer is coming.. half people ask for great weather for Summer Break, the farmers pray for rain. What God does? If he stays out of it entirely, things happen as designed by; nature that is designed by God so no interference per occurance.. so no favorites.

He helps them BOTH as soon as the prayer is one to help him see his fellow man as a brother...as another child of God.

Heck, yeah. you speak like true preacher. Yes and no and maybe in one and the same sentence. As long as you are right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let's discuss this one. If God is loving Father he should love all his creatures and children alike. No favs. Right? But if one prays for something, why should God fulfill that request? For one it is favoritism, for two it is not fair to others who did not ask... because God as a Good Father
should see the needs of his children and do his best to help them just as humans do right? A good father does not wait for a child to ask or pray but gives freely according to his abilities to help a child in need.

But! just but.. what if God does not really play favorites with humans and things happen at random? What if God wants to be just and does not help nobody over the next person? Then it would be fair and then the prayer for things and gains would have no basis. Then people would just have to be nice to God and God would not give nothing to no one. Would then people love God knowing that no matter how hard they would pray they would not get ahead of the next dude? That would be interesting to see.

Discuss

Where were you when He laid the foundations of the Earth? Declare, if you have understanding. It’s not like this question has never come up before. (Cf. Job 38:4). The only rational answer is that we are not in a position to evaluate this question due to insufficient data. You must do with that what you will with that uncertainty.

This I not an answer to the question. You are just kicking the ball in a very tall grass.

Admit .. what would happen if you would love god with all your might but you would not pray-ask him anything ever. Would you have real guts to trust God the Father that he will give you what you want without asking or would you not dare to risk that he might overlook. It takes a lot of guts to put faith of your life into God's hands trusting he knows what is best for you and not ask anything ever. Scary right? Because on one hand you do love and trust but do you trust enough to let go and feel that God would really do something for you if you would not ask?
It is kind of insane because on one hand you believe God is almighty and all loving and then you feel you need to ask for some specific stuff because the same God will not know what and when you need it?

I am trying here to see if people agree that pure love and the greatest love of all is such that you trust and don't ask because you love god and hope that he knows the best what is the best for you and his plan. I think that in a way people who pray hard for things, do not trust God at all, they just use the same tactic they do with other humans they just bug God so much that something happens finally and they think without their prayer nothing would happen , but what if ? what if it is not a miracle but it was God's plan from the get go? I love miracles but who knows.

That’s not true at all, about the long grass. It’s just the reality of beings with limited perception and information trying to evaluate something far beyond that. If there is no God, the question is ill-formed and meaningless, what does zero smell like? if there is a god, by definition you aren’t in a position to evaluate his motives. There is the seventh-grade confirmation class answer, which is that you can pray for whatever you want, but should always qualify it with “thy will be done” for that precise reason. That is painfully standard. You might, as Garth Brooks did, even end up thanking God for unanswered prayers,

But, for me, I think The Rolling Stones said it best. You can’t, of course, always get what you want. But, you might find, you get what you need. This is a standard question dealt with at length in the literature of Christian apologetics, see for example CS Lewis and his writings on the point. (E.g. Till We Have Faces).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It doesn't work. Otherwise a 4 month old baby would not be ripped from his parents' arms ... I could go on, but you get the idea.

so prayer would only work if everyone in the world was happy and no one ever died unless it was of old age?

So when do they work then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So let's discuss this one. If God is loving Father he should love all his creatures and children alike. No favs. Right? But if one prays for something, why should God fulfill that request? For one it is favoritism, for two it is not fair to others who did not ask... because God as a Good Father
should see the needs of his children and do his best to help them just as humans do right? A good father does not wait for a child to ask or pray but gives freely according to his abilities to help a child in need.

But! just but.. what if God does not really play favorites with humans and things happen at random? What if God wants to be just and does not help nobody over the next person? Then it would be fair and then the prayer for things and gains would have no basis. Then people would just have to be nice to God and God would not give nothing to no one. Would then people love God knowing that no matter how hard they would pray they would not get ahead of the next dude? That would be interesting to see.

Discuss

Actually, I think your first theory is not right.

God made us all and loves us equally but sin is in the way of our relationship with Him. He is desperately reaching out to all of us, trying to get us back, but only some of us respond to that. So, it's not an issue of "playing favorites," but people who are tainted by their sin that they refuse to acknowledge cannot have the relationship that they need to have/ are supposed to have with their Creator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So let's discuss this one. If God is loving Father he should love all his creatures and children alike. No favs. Right? But if one prays for something, why should God fulfill that request? For one it is favoritism, for two it is not fair to others who did not ask... because God as a Good Father
should see the needs of his children and do his best to help them just as humans do right? A good father does not wait for a child to ask or pray but gives freely according to his abilities to help a child in need.

But! just but.. what if God does not really play favorites with humans and things happen at random? What if God wants to be just and does not help nobody over the next person? Then it would be fair and then the prayer for things and gains would have no basis. Then people would just have to be nice to God and God would not give nothing to no one. Would then people love God knowing that no matter how hard they would pray they would not get ahead of the next dude? That would be interesting to see.

Discuss

Prayers are supposed to help people cope with what it happening in their lives. Like, 'Please give me the strength to...….". They are not a list of wants like a Santa letter.

[Anonymous]

As a Catholic, my prayers aren’t all supplication (asking for something). I also pray in praise, thanksgiving, apology, etc.

I was taught that prayer is simply a form of communication with God. Sometimes people pray without meaning to, including those people who don’t even believe in God.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No.

No yes, no no? No what?

No they do not work. Was it really that difficult to understand?

How do you know? Did you got burned or never believed?

If they worked it would be easily demonstrated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let's discuss this one. If God is loving Father he should love all his creatures and children alike. No favs. Right? But if one prays for something, why should God fulfill that request? For one it is favoritism, for two it is not fair to others who did not ask... because God as a Good Father
should see the needs of his children and do his best to help them just as humans do right? A good father does not wait for a child to ask or pray but gives freely according to his abilities to help a child in need.

But! just but.. what if God does not really play favorites with humans and things happen at random? What if God wants to be just and does not help nobody over the next person? Then it would be fair and then the prayer for things and gains would have no basis. Then people would just have to be nice to God and God would not give nothing to no one. Would then people love God knowing that no matter how hard they would pray they would not get ahead of the next dude? That would be interesting to see.

Discuss

Prayers are supposed to help people cope with what it happening in their lives. Like, 'Please give me the strength to...….". They are not a list of wants like a Santa letter.

Then god is not necessary for prayer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Then there is another kind, the best.. people who do not believe in God, do not worship god but deep down they feel entitled to be his children because when s---t hits the fan they pray their butts off and hope for miracle. The best kind.

Huh?

[Anonymous]

God is like a parent. Sometimes two siblings might want the same thing, but the parent better understands what each child needs.

God is a parent who understands EXACTLY what you need. And sometimes it’s not a life where everything goes exactly how you want and nothing bad happens to you.

[Anonymous]

I never understood why prayer cured cancer but never regenerated an amputated limb.

[Anonymous]

Yes it works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let's discuss this one. If God is loving Father he should love all his creatures and children alike. No favs. Right? But if one prays for something, why should God fulfill that request? For one it is favoritism, for two it is not fair to others who did not ask... because God as a Good Father
should see the needs of his children and do his best to help them just as humans do right? A good father does not wait for a child to ask or pray but gives freely according to his abilities to help a child in need.

But! just but.. what if God does not really play favorites with humans and things happen at random? What if God wants to be just and does not help nobody over the next person? Then it would be fair and then the prayer for things and gains would have no basis. Then people would just have to be nice to God and God would not give nothing to no one. Would then people love God knowing that no matter how hard they would pray they would not get ahead of the next dude? That would be interesting to see.

Discuss

Prayers are supposed to help people cope with what it happening in their lives. Like, 'Please give me the strength to...….". They are not a list of wants like a Santa letter.

Then god is not necessary for prayer.

For some it is and for some it isn't.