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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This thread reminds me of the old joke:
[/quote]

The old joke has zero applicability to this thread.

The original question wasn't, "How can I sit on my ass and eat potato chips all day and expect boons to fall into my lap?" It was, "How can I pray effectively?" It goes without saying that human effort is required. That's a given. But if you think God is just there to pat you on the shoulder and sit back and eat His potato chips while human effort does all the work, you worship a useless God. Even atheists agree that all the effort you put into working towards a goal can be useless if you have incredibly bad luck.

Divine intervention can and has created miracles. Miracles are recorded in every religion. People being warned of disaster by angelic beings ahead of time, people being saved from cancer at the last possible second, people surviving disastrous accidents, etc.

And the human effort + luck part? That luck part is God, and sometimes significant luck is required. Sorry you loathe yourself so much that you don't think you deserve it.[/quote]

:::whoosh:::

That was the point flying over your head.

The man in the joke prayed effectively. He got exactly what he was praying for. He just didn't recognize it. [/quote]

Nope, I got exactly what you meant, and it was the point of this thread that flew over your head. The implication of your "joke" was that lazy believers don't seize opportunities when their prayers are answered.

Your "joke" would have made a lot more sense if you had explained what exactly the man did during his prayer process to make God send several different types of aid his way. The story of your "joke" doesn't go into the details of the man's emotional state, or faith, or prayer ritual though, because the [i]point of the joke is to discuss people who just pray for help but don't take action.[/i] Hope that helps you out.[/quote]

Ah, so there's a method to making prayer effective? If only God or the church of your choice (or you, for that matter) published the directions. "Send $10 to this address for my foolproof method for getting God to answer your prayers."

No one can prove that one mental or emotional state over another, or one format of requests over another will result in "effective" intercessory prayer, not will the results necessarily take the form you expect. As they say, "God helps those who help themselves." The point is that if you look for opportunities you will find them. [/quote]

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