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| In a message dated 10/9/2005 11:43:39 AM Pacific Daylight Time, dm0904@yahoo.com writes: Blue Star wrote: >>> How important are prayers in your life? \ <><>< To me, it is not so much how important prayer are in MY life as to how important they are to God Himself. Huh?! I think we have a different way of looking at prayers. To me a prayer is supposed to help me and therefore more important than it is to God that is already perfect and may not need any help from me at all. Anyway, I know personally how it is with me and my own feelings, but I can not speak for God. Do you pray then mostly in order to please God? (In my language I call this, "magpalugud" :) The word of God says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 "Pray without ceasing." Just who are these Thesalonians? Sorry, but I can only pray at certain times, I think. There are many things to do in life. Even on my own children (and grandchildren), I won't impose something that would take up all their time. Asking them to love me as their father is more than enough. I won't have them serve me every minute. The first occurrence of the word, pray, in the New Testament is in Matthew 5:44 "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Did Matthew do that? Just how was he able to love his enemy? It is against human nature, against one's God-given inborn traits! Very unnatural and impractical. Was Matthew in his right mind when he obliged to write that passage "for God"? For one thing, only a god can forgive everybody since he can't anyway be hurt by the actions of any mortal being. I can co-exist with an enemy perhaps and try to make peace with him, but no, I shall be honest, I can not love my enemy. Luckily though, I happen to have no enemy in life and have a lot of friends instead. >>> How do you feel when you've met with difficulties and your prayers to surmount them are not answered? <><>< I believe that prayers that are made "in Jesus' name" are *always* answered. They may seem to be unanswered because they are not answered in the way we wanted them answered - that is, almost always RIGHT AWAY, and in the manner we want them answered (almost like TELLING God Himself what to do. What I mean is "answered to one's satisfaction". To me, my prayer is answered only if I'm satisfied. If I'm not satisfied, I would regard my prayer as unanswered. Oh no, it's not like commanding God on what to do, as otherwise, if that's how it is interpreted, I'll just keep my mouth shut and just learn to live with what is on hand whether good or bad and not ask anymore for his intercession. But I don't think that's how it is with him, knowing he has no attitude problem. I give him all my love and of course, I expect him, as my father, to give me all the help I need. No, actually when I pray, I know the result will just be inside me, not outside. I know that I can find the answer only in my heart. When I pray during a storm or war, for instance, I'm just asking God for strength and guidance so I could cope with such occurrences, such as by being able to escape and protect myself. It's not like asking him to directly stop the storm or war which I know he won't. Wars are made by humans, and storms, by the forces of nature. And God does not interfere with the course of human events and with the laws of nature. (Deism) I have countless prayers that do not seem to be answered. But I continue praying because only God knows EXACTLY what to do with my prayers, supplications, entreaties, etc. I charter and direct my own course in life using the free will God gave me. And I pray, because I need his guidance. And the results I expect will just be some favorable changes "inside me" such as strength, courage, encouragement, peace of mind, etc., and nothing else. I don't ever expect changes in what is going on around me. If like what you say God knows EXACTLY what to do, then why still pray? For then, even if you don't pray, he would already know what to do, won't he? Following your logic, won't that be like teaching him? I share herewith one of the "Prison Meditations" of Richard Wurmbrand whom I have mentioned before I came to know personally and intimately: Every request in prayer shows a lack of submission to what God in His wisdom and love has foreordained. What would the world be like if God were to change His plan every time someone expressed a desire in prayer? Well, this is because of a wrong concept made by certain people. Actually, there should never be a dilemma. If you believe that the fulfillment of a prayer is within you, that the answer to your prayer can only be found in your heart through a change in your whole being, then there is no need for God to try pleasing everybody that requests for something different or in contradiction with those of others. As it is then, God is able to please everybody that prays to him. This is because, everybody has a heart and a mind of his own, and where the answer to a prayer is fulfilled. Of course, if one likes it to rain while another wants it to be sunny, then God will be on the horns of a dilemma, not knowing between two good people whom to please. Fortunatelly, it does not work that way. A prayer, by the way, is different from a wish which could either be granted or not (by luck?) . But all prayers, as long as they are heartfelt, are answered, unlike a wish that may or may not. And this can be seen when one is able to get an answer to his problem, lost fear, got encouraged or had peace of mind. The Talmud says that the Jewish high priest entered the most sacred place of the temple once a year to pray for the people, and always concluded his prayer with the words, "God, disregard the requests of Wayfarers." This was wise: everyone who traveled on Monday asked that there be no rain on that day; likewise those who traveled on Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. If God listened to them all, the people would perish because of drought. I think I already gave my answer to this. The following story illustrates the best manner of prayer. Two Christians each planted an apple tree in front of his house. When the time for reaping apples came, the first looked angrily at his tree: it bore not even one apple. When he approached his neighbor's house, he became even angrier. The branches of his brother's tree were cracking under the weight of beautiful fruits. He asked his brother, "Explain this to me. We planted our trees at the same time; we serve page 65 — 100 PRISON MEDITATIONS — the same God. How is it that He gave you so many apples and none to me? "The other answered, "Perhaps you did not pray for your tree." "What! Not pray?" said the first, "I prayed every day: `God, give rain; God, enough, now stop the rain. God, sun is needed now; too much now, it might scorch my tree.' I never neglected prayer, and it was all in vain. How did you do it?" The brother replied, "I am not so keen at prayer as you are. I prayed only once, in the beginning, like this, `Father, I have planted an apple tree and wish to have fruit in due time. It is not for me to teach you how much sun and rain to give. You are a more ancient gardener than myself. You created Eden and all trees grow under your direction. Grant me apples in due time.'" If that's the case, like I said before, then there seems to be no need for one to pray anymore. For in what the story tells, God already knows what to do, even without the gardener's prayer. It implies that even if no prayers have been offered God would already know what to do, but he still wants the prayer, and he wants it to be short and not in detail, because he already knows what to do and should not be TOLD like you said. So, in the story, he gave extreme amount of rain, sunlight, etc.!!! And that's because the man did not just ask God in a general way but instead specified everything in detail as if he was giving orders to Him and to His exasperation! Is God, in your opinion, prone to being sarcastic and gives too much rain if rain is asked and too much heat when heat is asked? I don't think so! Anyway, it was not directly because of God's work that one tree bore no fruit while the other bore a lot. There is instead a scientific reason behind why one's tree did not bear fruit - something modern agriculturists can anwer, and that's for sure. I don't think it was the prayers of each planter that really made a difference. As a matter of fact, like I say again, the answer to a prayer can only be found inside one's heart and not in an "outside situation change" such as in the case of trees "wished" by its respective planter to fructify. Well, Dido, we seem to differ greatly in our beliefs, but that is okay, isn't it? As long as we don't force each other into believing what we do believe, there won't be any harm done and all is well that ends well. Let's continue with our search for the Truth. Blue Star> |
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