Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gratitude is prayer. Thanking God for the new blue Chevy? I guess, if it works for you. I think I would just thank him for taking care of my needs.

But sometimes God doesn't take care of our needs, and OP has found a way to get through to God more effectively so that he is more likely to meet our needs.

It's possible that we only think God is not meeting our needs, when actually, because he's all knowing, he's meeting our needs in ways we don't understand and can't understand because we are mere humans.

This is a complex, but useful explanation for times in which our fervent prayers are not answered. It's the kind of thing people often don't think of on their own, because they are disappointed that God did not respond to them in the way that they had wanted. But a clergy person or other more sophisticated believer can present the alternative explanation and help people understand and accept it.

This just about breaks my heart. Teachers praying for their students during a school shooting. Moms praying for their children dying of cancer. And you think God is meeting the needs of these people by killing the kids they're praying for? Come on.

One, stop with the juvenile "God is killing people" thing.

Two, do you think this world is as good as it gets?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gratitude is prayer. Thanking God for the new blue Chevy? I guess, if it works for you. I think I would just thank him for taking care of my needs.

But sometimes God doesn't take care of our needs, and OP has found a way to get through to God more effectively so that he is more likely to meet our needs.

It's possible that we only think God is not meeting our needs, when actually, because he's all knowing, he's meeting our needs in ways we don't understand and can't understand because we are mere humans.

This is a complex, but useful explanation for times in which our fervent prayers are not answered. It's the kind of thing people often don't think of on their own, because they are disappointed that God did not respond to them in the way that they had wanted. But a clergy person or other more sophisticated believer can present the alternative explanation and help people understand and accept it.

This just about breaks my heart. Teachers praying for their students during a school shooting. Moms praying for their children dying of cancer. And you think God is meeting the needs of these people by killing the kids they're praying for? Come on.

Parents would never give their children everything they ask for. Part of loving a child is knowing what's best for them, even if getting it makes them unhappy.

Unfortunately, when we become adults, we adopt the attitude that that no longer applies to us, and adults who ask God for something and don't get it then get petulant and decide they don't believe in God, or that He's mean, etc.

I'm not saying that's what the OP is doing. OP is not. But many do, and many post on here. There's very little introspection on this issue by a lot of people.

Anonymous wrote:Could it be the answer was "no"?

Looks like pp didn't read through the thread. It's already been mentioned that God says no sometimes.

You think an answer to your prayers means an affirmative response, but as we all know, being listened to (by anyone) is not synonymous with getting what you want.

Too bad this apparently isn't made clear enough when people first learn to pray. Maybe they wouldn't pray as much if they realized that sometimes God would say No. God is presented to children as a magical being who gives you what you want if you're good and ask sincerely enough.

That's not the case at all. No matter how needy you are or how nicely you ask, God sometimes says "no."

Could it be the answer was "no"?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gratitude is prayer. Thanking God for the new blue Chevy? I guess, if it works for you. I think I would just thank him for taking care of my needs.

But sometimes God doesn't take care of our needs, and OP has found a way to get through to God more effectively so that he is more likely to meet our needs.

It's possible that we only think God is not meeting our needs, when actually, because he's all knowing, he's meeting our needs in ways we don't understand and can't understand because we are mere humans.

This is a complex, but useful explanation for times in which our fervent prayers are not answered. It's the kind of thing people often don't think of on their own, because they are disappointed that God did not respond to them in the way that they had wanted. But a clergy person or other more sophisticated believer can present the alternative explanation and help people understand and accept it.

Anonymous wrote:Gratitude is prayer. Thanking God for the new blue Chevy? I guess, if it works for you. I think I would just thank him for taking care of my needs.

But sometimes God doesn't take care of our needs, and OP has found a way to get through to God more effectively so that he is more likely to meet our needs.

Gratitude is prayer. Thanking God for the new blue Chevy? I guess, if it works for you. I think I would just thank him for taking care of my needs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You know there's a different conclusion you could reach, right?

That there is no god. That when you don't get something you've prayed for, it's because there is no god there listening to and answering (some of) your prayers. And that it's mere coincidence when your prayers are answered. It was something that was going to happen anyhow, prayers or not.

Some people find this conclusion comforting. Others are bothered by it because it means a lack of control and the inability to live forever after our earthly death.

Op here. This might have worked if I had never felt the force of the Holy Spirit, or never saw a spirit, but I've witnessed both.

What did the spirit look like? How did you know it was the holy spirit and not a ghost?

It was not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was a force that pretty much knocked me down. The spirits I've seen appeared to be made of vapors and light. They were ethereal looking. I'm just saying I know there is a God, because of what I've experienced.

How do you know it was the holy spirit that knocked you down? Did it say or do something to indicate its origin? And regarding the spirits, how do you know they came from God? Maybe it was vapor and light.

I'm a Bible-believing Christian, and I wonder why you think the Holy Spirit would knock you down. There's nothing recorded in Scripture to suggest that the Holy Spirit announces Himself by knocking people down. The Holy Spirit convicts unbelievers of sin, testifies to Christ and empowers us for holy living. He doesn't knock people down. I'm rather sure that if you were knocked down by a spirit, it wasn't the Holy one.

I take it you've never been to an Evangelist church.

You mean a Pentecostal one? Yes, I have. I grew up in one. I think many of them have a extra-Biblical misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You know there's a different conclusion you could reach, right?

That there is no god. That when you don't get something you've prayed for, it's because there is no god there listening to and answering (some of) your prayers. And that it's mere coincidence when your prayers are answered. It was something that was going to happen anyhow, prayers or not.

Some people find this conclusion comforting. Others are bothered by it because it means a lack of control and the inability to live forever after our earthly death.

Op here. This might have worked if I had never felt the force of the Holy Spirit, or never saw a spirit, but I've witnessed both.

What did the spirit look like? How did you know it was the holy spirit and not a ghost?

It was not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was a force that pretty much knocked me down. The spirits I've seen appeared to be made of vapors and light. They were ethereal looking. I'm just saying I know there is a God, because of what I've experienced.

How do you know it was the holy spirit that knocked you down? Did it say or do something to indicate its origin? And regarding the spirits, how do you know they came from God? Maybe it was vapor and light.

I'm a Bible-believing Christian, and I wonder why you think the Holy Spirit would knock you down. There's nothing recorded in Scripture to suggest that the Holy Spirit announces Himself by knocking people down. The Holy Spirit convicts unbelievers of sin, testifies to Christ and empowers us for holy living. He doesn't knock people down. I'm rather sure that if you were knocked down by a spirit, it wasn't the Holy one.

I take it you've never been to an Evangelist church.

Poor OP can't catch a break. The Christians are saying that OP doesn't pray correctly or believe in the right kind of spirits and the atheists are saying that the whole thing is bunk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You know there's a different conclusion you could reach, right?

That there is no god. That when you don't get something you've prayed for, it's because there is no god there listening to and answering (some of) your prayers. And that it's mere coincidence when your prayers are answered. It was something that was going to happen anyhow, prayers or not.

Some people find this conclusion comforting. Others are bothered by it because it means a lack of control and the inability to live forever after our earthly death.

Op here. This might have worked if I had never felt the force of the Holy Spirit, or never saw a spirit, but I've witnessed both.

What did the spirit look like? How did you know it was the holy spirit and not a ghost?

It was not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was a force that pretty much knocked me down. The spirits I've seen appeared to be made of vapors and light. They were ethereal looking. I'm just saying I know there is a God, because of what I've experienced.

How do you know it was the holy spirit that knocked you down? Did it say or do something to indicate its origin? And regarding the spirits, how do you know they came from God? Maybe it was vapor and light.

I'm a Bible-believing Christian, and I wonder why you think the Holy Spirit would knock you down. There's nothing recorded in Scripture to suggest that the Holy Spirit announces Himself by knocking people down. The Holy Spirit convicts unbelievers of sin, testifies to Christ and empowers us for holy living. He doesn't knock people down. I'm rather sure that if you were knocked down by a spirit, it wasn't the Holy one.

My sources say no

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You know there's a different conclusion you could reach, right?

That there is no god. That when you don't get something you've prayed for, it's because there is no god there listening to and answering (some of) your prayers. And that it's mere coincidence when your prayers are answered. It was something that was going to happen anyhow, prayers or not.

Some people find this conclusion comforting. Others are bothered by it because it means a lack of control and the inability to live forever after our earthly death.

Op here. This might have worked if I had never felt the force of the Holy Spirit, or never saw a spirit, but I've witnessed both.

What did the spirit look like? How did you know it was the holy spirit and not a ghost?

It was not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was a force that pretty much knocked me down. The spirits I've seen appeared to be made of vapors and light. They were ethereal looking. I'm just saying I know there is a God, because of what I've experienced.

How do you know it was the holy spirit that knocked you down? Did it say or do something to indicate its origin? And regarding the spirits, how do you know they came from God? Maybe it was vapor and light.

Anonymous wrote:God is not your bitch.

You just made my day!