Prayer? Yes, no, maybe so?

[comfylove]

I figured I'd put this in the main forum since followers of several religions (that I know of) pray. Sorry if it is in the wrong place and ought to be moved, though! sweatdrop

What do you think about prayer! o:

I am a new Christian myself, so I am also new to prayer. I pray every day, in the morning, before meals, throughout the day, and before bed. I think about 1-1/2 hours of my day, every day, is devoted just for prayer (most of it is all of the praying I do before bed, which takes quite some time). Praying, for me, is as important to my faith as reading Scripture and attending church. I feel like for me, it is a must.

How about you?
I was just wondering who all prays here, and how often?
Do you think it's important?  

[Jewpanesey]

I don't pray, particularly because I don't believe there is a god. As George Carlin said:

Quote:

Trillions and trillions of prayers every day asking and begging and pleading for favors. 'Do this' 'Gimme that' 'I want a new car' 'I want a better job'. And most of this praying takes place on Sunday. And I say fine, pray for anything you want. Pray for anything. But...what about the divine plan? Remember that? The divine plan. Long time ago god made a divine plan. Gave it a lot of thought. Decided it was a good plan. Put it into practice. And for billion and billions of years the divine plan has been doing just fine. Now you come along and pray for something. Well, suppose the thing you want isn't in god's divine plan. What do you want him to do? Change his plan? Just for you? Doesn't it seem a little arrogant? It's a divine plan. What's the use of being god if every run-down schmuck with a two dollar prayer book can come along and ******** up your plan? And here's something else, another problem you might have; suppose your prayers aren't answered. What do you say? 'Well it's god's will. God's will be done.' Fine, but if it gods will and he's going to do whatever he wants to anyway; why the ******** bother praying in the first place? Seems like a big waste of time to me. Couldn't you just skip the praying part and get right to his will?

 

[Sanguina Cruenta]

I pray twice daily, going to work and coming home on the bus. I'd like to take the time to pray a third time, and do it "properly" rather than whilst travelling. Ground, centre, light a candle, etc. Many deities means many gods and goddesses to speak to. wink

I think it's important for those attempting to build a relationship with a deity or deities.  

[Nebulance]

Jewpanesey

I don't pray, particularly because I don't believe there is a god. As George Carlin said:

Quote:

Trillions and trillions of prayers every day asking and begging and pleading for favors. 'Do this' 'Gimme that' 'I want a new car' 'I want a better job'. And most of this praying takes place on Sunday. And I say fine, pray for anything you want. Pray for anything. But...what about the divine plan? Remember that? The divine plan. Long time ago god made a divine plan. Gave it a lot of thought. Decided it was a good plan. Put it into practice. And for billion and billions of years the divine plan has been doing just fine. Now you come along and pray for something. Well, suppose the thing you want isn't in god's divine plan. What do you want him to do? Change his plan? Just for you? Doesn't it seem a little arrogant? It's a divine plan. What's the use of being god if every run-down schmuck with a two dollar prayer book can come along and ******** up your plan? And here's something else, another problem you might have; suppose your prayers aren't answered. What do you say? 'Well it's god's will. God's will be done.' Fine, but if it gods will and he's going to do whatever he wants to anyway; why the ******** bother praying in the first place? Seems like a big waste of time to me. Couldn't you just skip the praying part and get right to his will?

God doesn't have all the details set in stone yet... He's waiting to hear our requests regarding those. smile

Or, another way to look at it is that He stands outside of time and so molded His divine plan in the first place around our future requests... we can't 'mess up' His plan, because He already knows what we are going to do and ask.  

[Sanguina Cruenta]

Jewpanesey

I don't pray, particularly because I don't believe there is a god. As George Carlin said:

Quote:

Trillions and trillions of prayers every day asking and begging and pleading for favors. 'Do this' 'Gimme that' 'I want a new car' 'I want a better job'. And most of this praying takes place on Sunday. And I say fine, pray for anything you want. Pray for anything. But...what about the divine plan? Remember that? The divine plan. Long time ago god made a divine plan. Gave it a lot of thought. Decided it was a good plan. Put it into practice. And for billion and billions of years the divine plan has been doing just fine. Now you come along and pray for something. Well, suppose the thing you want isn't in god's divine plan. What do you want him to do? Change his plan? Just for you? Doesn't it seem a little arrogant? It's a divine plan. What's the use of being god if every run-down schmuck with a two dollar prayer book can come along and ******** up your plan? And here's something else, another problem you might have; suppose your prayers aren't answered. What do you say? 'Well it's god's will. God's will be done.' Fine, but if it gods will and he's going to do whatever he wants to anyway; why the ******** bother praying in the first place? Seems like a big waste of time to me. Couldn't you just skip the praying part and get right to his will?

I like Carlin very much. But either you or Carlin, or both, are making the assumption that people are asking for something when they pray. That's true sometimes. Not always. Carlin's quote here is more about people who pray for things arrogantly without appropriate thought, and who only pray when they want something... at least that's the way I understand it.

You're also assuming that every god prayed to has a divine plan, and that every deity with a plan is unwilling or unable to change it wink  

[Frosted Cookii3]

Jewpanesey

I don't pray, particularly because I don't believe there is a god. As George Carlin said:

Quote:

Trillions and trillions of prayers every day asking and begging and pleading for favors. 'Do this' 'Gimme that' 'I want a new car' 'I want a better job'. And most of this praying takes place on Sunday. And I say fine, pray for anything you want. Pray for anything. But...what about the divine plan? Remember that? The divine plan. Long time ago god made a divine plan. Gave it a lot of thought. Decided it was a good plan. Put it into practice. And for billion and billions of years the divine plan has been doing just fine. Now you come along and pray for something. Well, suppose the thing you want isn't in god's divine plan. What do you want him to do? Change his plan? Just for you? Doesn't it seem a little arrogant? It's a divine plan. What's the use of being god if every run-down schmuck with a two dollar prayer book can come along and ******** up your plan? And here's something else, another problem you might have; suppose your prayers aren't answered. What do you say? 'Well it's god's will. God's will be done.' Fine, but if it gods will and he's going to do whatever he wants to anyway; why the ******** bother praying in the first place? Seems like a big waste of time to me. Couldn't you just skip the praying part and get right to his will?

I understand what you are saying here, although I don't quite agree.
To give some background first, I am Mormon, or rather, I belong to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So before you rant on about, "Oh they dont believe in Christ" or "They pray to some Joseph guy"
allow me to clear this up. Re-read the name. It has "Jesus Christ" in it. Yes, we believe in the Christ, the Second Coming, all that. Just a little differently. We also do NOT pray to anyone but the father and son. Not Mary, not Joseph Smith. Thirdly, we do not practice polygamy (the practice of having multiple wives) . We are the LDS, they are the FLDS.
Back to topic :3
We believe that we may pray for thing we want. Some believe that you might get it because you want it so badly, some believe that you might get it because it's part of his plan of salvation. Although when I pray (which really should be more often than I currently do) I pray with an honest heart that God's will be done, even if I pray for something. Praying for something superficial, like an Xbox or a shiny expensive car, is almost always completely arrogant. Some people may ask for help in aquiring these things, like praying that nothing will go wrong in funds or they may aquire the money quickly. Praying for a loved one to recover from illness is something that might be in his will. I know when people pray for a loved one to recover, sometimes they dont. Sometimes they die, and the people may say, "Why God? Why me? What did I do to deserve this? I thought you loved me?" and may turn away from their faith, not realizing that there loved one is up in heaven, (for us mormons, in paradise(or prison), awaiting the second coming so they may be resurrected and eventually go to one of three kingdoms of heaven, [and maybe a very very few sent to Hell.]) and that they will eventaully join them.

Praying is healthy for your soul, and praying for forgivness of any and all sins I see as a must. I should pray much more often than I do, and I hope I will be able to establish a habit of prayer, thanking God and Christ for all they have given us, asking them to help me in troubled times, and asking them to help others that need help.

xoxo-

Sayo

 

[Voldemort point two]

I believe that prayer and reading the Bible go hand in hand. Having a relationship with God is two-way. If you just read the Bible and don't pray, then it's not really a relationship, it's just reading. There's something that is used in sermons and things to describe how prayers should go: JOY. That stands for "Jesus, others, yourself".

@Jewpanesey: Well, God is outside of time, so He knows what we're going to ask for before we ask for it. It's complicated, but basically when God made His plan, He already knew how everything was going to pan out, because He's outside of time, so he knew what we would ask for and whether He would give it to us. But some people who pray for things like money and cars are stupid and selfish. Jesus said to give all we had to the poor, not to bug God for more things. He also said that anything we ask for in His Name, He will do for us. There are lots of debates over what that means, but it basically means that God is willing to "change" His divine plan for us.  

[tobiwants2cookies]

I believe God already knows what we want to say and what we will say whispering it into our ears through the Holy Spirit... this might sound like a reason to not pray at all but it is. It's growing your listening skills to the Holy Spirit and thus allowing you to do good for others and feel truly happy.

I sadly don't pray as much as I should sometimes not at all for months which is really sad for me because it makes the above statement sound hypocritical but this is what I believe  

[quietstorm 2]

I pray extensively three days a week, I pray everday for communication and other times depending on my needs and the needs of others. What I'm beginning to focus on is to pray GODS will; so I study and pray for the knowledge. Some of my prayers are answere, some are not. The prayers that are not answered are disappointing to me; but I trust that HE knows what is good for me. Thinking abouti it, if I received everything I wanted I would probably be dead by now. I think the older we get the more we realize everything is not good for us. Bottom line is through prayer we can get direction and help. Prayer is necessary for my well being. The desire to pray is a blessing for me because it was not always like that.  

[vampirate tsukinu]

i pray five times a day ..
when ramadan time ..
i pray 6 times ..it takes 2 hours in the last praying  

[Mei tsuki7]

Nebulance

Or, another way to look at it is that He stands outside of time and so molded His divine plan in the first place around our future requests... we can't 'mess up' His plan, because He already knows what we are going to do and ask.

That is a very good way to put it and is exactly what I believe and it also is part of what stems my belief that the higher being(s) is a/are higher dimensional creature(s).

Now about prayer to me.
For me I don't pray. I've never really been someone who prays even when I was a pretty hardcore Christian. Yes I did the pray for every meal and at night but it was just doing what my mom told me to do not because I wanted to or it made me feel anything. My not caring about prayer has held me back from other beliefs as well because I know I'm probably not going to take the time to pray as it is required. I'm more of an action person then a words person.  

[Jewpanesey]

You guys are assuming I believe in a god/goddess. Also, you are forgetting George Carlin is a comedian  

[starfishluvsu]

I pray at least 4 times a day (Meals, evening) and usually more since I pray for various things throughout the day biggrin  

[Vasilius Konstantinos]

Prayer is our communication with God. How can we know Him if we do not talk with him daily, hourly or with every breath?

Please take the time to watch a clip of Elder Cleopas before his passing +Lord Have Mercy+ on what he had to say about prayer and why it is dire and necessary to live a prayerful life in devotion. You can find the clip here. I urge all of you to listen and watch for a little while. The Ascetic values of these Monks are a cornerstone to the Faith.  

[CH1YO]

I myself am disgustingly secularised but I was invited to observe thanks before a meal- fried chicken no less- on the grounds that our young companion be properly habituated to praise and thanks.

Needless to say I was delighted.