Anonymous wrote:I figure he's too busy answering the prayers of the millions of children around the world asking to be delivered from the squalor, poverty, violence, disease, and hunger that afflict their lives.

Yeah, he definitely is busy doing that. Definitely.

I figure he's too busy answering the prayers of the millions of children around the world asking to be delivered from the squalor, poverty, violence, disease, and hunger that afflict their lives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those who think prayer truly works, how do you justify praying for such mundane and (relatively) meaningless things like the OP's desire to meet with someone? When I pray, I pray for the suffering of abused children to end, for victims of disease to heal, JD for the hungry to receive nourishment.

OP here -- not sure why people do or do not pray, I come from a faith where you are supposed to ask God for whatever it is you want. That obviously doesn't mean you will always get what you want, but we are taught that no prayer is too small. And to whom does one need to justify? It's between you and God what you pray for -- big or small.

I'm glad that you're praying for big world issues. Some of us have lots of smaller issues in our own lives comparatively.

PP you quoted here. You asked to whom do you need to justify your prayers - I was wondering how you justify it to yourself and your conscience. If God truly answers prayers and you only have a limited amount of time to pray, how can you pray for trivial things when there is such great suffering all around us?

OP here -- uh -- my faith actually tells you to pray for yourself first and then others around you and then society at large. Again why do I have to justify to anyone what I pray for?? Done with this conversation as it's going no where. Pray for whatever you want whether it's a new Mercedes or world peace -- why does it matter to me what YOU pray for?

Oh sure, this one's easy. It's because God doesn't exist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those who think prayer truly works, how do you justify praying for such mundane and (relatively) meaningless things like the OP's desire to meet with someone? When I pray, I pray for the suffering of abused children to end, for victims of disease to heal, JD for the hungry to receive nourishment.

OP here -- not sure why people do or do not pray, I come from a faith where you are supposed to ask God for whatever it is you want. That obviously doesn't mean you will always get what you want, but we are taught that no prayer is too small. And to whom does one need to justify? It's between you and God what you pray for -- big or small.

I'm glad that you're praying for big world issues. Some of us have lots of smaller issues in our own lives comparatively.

PP you quoted here. You asked to whom do you need to justify your prayers - I was wondering how you justify it to yourself and your conscience. If God truly answers prayers and you only have a limited amount of time to pray, how can you pray for trivial things when there is such great suffering all around us?

Anonymous wrote:I'm not meaning this response to be mean, but maybe because God's world doesn't revolve around you and your 'no' may allow someone else to receive a 'yes'.

Yes God has a quota system. This year because of a draught there was a shortage of yeses.

21:04 -- Why do you post in this forum if you don't believe? If you don't, that's fine. But why $hit all over people who do believe? What does it take away from you if they do believe and want to pray?

Last year 6 million children under the age of five died around the globe. That's about 700 children per hour. I guess your answered prayers were more important than the anguished prayers of those families.

I really love the rationale that "no" comes because someone else got a "yes". And, just for my own education, how is it that your God is just perfection, but couldn't create his very own people without sin? So, he makes you flawed, and then craps all over you because you are the way he made you? Really?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I pray, I typically pray only that God will help me be my best person or give me the strength to deal with something. When it doesn't happen I blame myself, not God.

I do pretty much the same without invoking the supernatural.

Love it! I want to be your friend!

Anonymous wrote:For those who think prayer truly works, how do you justify praying for such mundane and (relatively) meaningless things like the OP's desire to meet with someone? When I pray, I pray for the suffering of abused children to end, for victims of disease to heal, JD for the hungry to receive nourishment.

OP here -- not sure why people do or do not pray, I come from a faith where you are supposed to ask God for whatever it is you want. That obviously doesn't mean you will always get what you want, but we are taught that no prayer is too small. And to whom does one need to justify? It's between you and God what you pray for -- big or small.

I'm glad that you're praying for big world issues. Some of us have lots of smaller issues in our own lives comparatively.

For those who think prayer truly works, how do you justify praying for such mundane and (relatively) meaningless things like the OP's desire to meet with someone? When I pray, I pray for the suffering of abused children to end, for victims of disease to heal, JD for the hungry to receive nourishment.

Anonymous wrote:When I pray, I typically pray only that God will help me be my best person or give me the strength to deal with something. When it doesn't happen I blame myself, not God.

I do pretty much the same without invoking the supernatural.

When I pray, I typically pray only that God will help me be my best person or give me the strength to deal with something. When it doesn't happen I blame myself, not God.

OP here -- thanks for those with helpful thoughts. For those who made me feel like I was asking God to set up a playdate with Larla, well I guess I should expect those responses on DCUM.

FWIW -- the example I gave was simplistic and it wasn't so much that I needed God to make a social call for me, but rather I'm pretty down and confused about my employment situation and this one person is one who really supports me and lifts my spirits and I felt like I needed that. For whoever said -- maybe God wants you to look inward and rely on him and not on others -- maybe that's it. Or maybe getting together with her that afternoon would have brought me down or somehow distracted my job search or whatever. Of course we never know. I was just asking for examples where people didn't understand why something relatively minor didn't happen for them (again -- not life/health stuff) but then later on there was that "aha" moment.

Anonymous wrote:Can you think of a time when you had to say No to your kids, and knew they wouldn't understand?

It's like that.

so in God's eyes we're like children and he takes care of us -- except sometimes terrible things happen to us while he's watching and we're praying for help. Then it's up to us to figure out why that "no" from God was actually the right thing in the long run.