Do you pray?

Question

I don't believe in the Christian god, I don't believe that prayer or faith really helps. Tell me your story if Prayer or having faith has impacted you at all.

Answer 1

Yes, prayer and faith have helped me. I was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the age of 15. The doctors believed that I had been born with this disease, because as a child I would get hurt and I would end up having bruises and cuts that would not heal normally. It would take a lot longer than usual.
To make a long story short one sunday night I went to church and had the elders of the church to pray for me. I was expecting a miracle. I had enough faith that I knew God would heal me. I wanted him to heal me of my diabetes.
The following week I had went to my regular doctor to have blood work done. The test he said would take around 2-3 days to come back. When they did finally come back he said it was like I never even had diabetes. I was healed.
Needless to say I was so amazed that faith had healed me. That is the first time that I had realized that God was real and that prayer and faith really did work.
No one can tell me that God doesn't perform miracles. Cause I now know that God can do anything he wants to and if I have enough faith he will move in my life.

Answer 2

Well I'll tell you the opposite. I used to pray now and then and have since put it off indefinately. The impact of this?

I feel rather purposeless. I feel like I'm missing the point of existence some days. People fill their little corners of emptiness inside with what spirituality has to offer. And so I must admit that I feel a loss of security now when I think about it.

It's silly to say that you don't believe prayer or faith really helps - whether you believe in God or not, the fact remains that a sense of security and belonging can trigger all kinds of positive reactions in the body. If faith is how a person accomplishes those things, they're still accomplished - regardless of whether you think a god exists or not.

The very fact that the manifestation of faith in a person can yield such good things should spur or suggest that, perhaps, we were meant to be spiritual.

Answer 3

Yes I pray a lot. I follow a small combat based faith. To me, fighting is a form of worship.

I think the real question is does praying work. IMHO absolutely! Rather often things I pray about resolve themselves with a little coaching. Now this will not work without a sacrifice of some sort. (no my friends of other faiths I do not kill babies, chickens, goats, sheep, or even insects). By sacrifice I mean an equal action to what you wish to achieve. You don't fly in space driving an ice cream truck feel me?

Prayer is good at helping me understand how to best fix my problems. Often once I relieve the aggression and frustration that clouds my mind I can see a simple and logical solution to my troubles. I think the prayer of other religions work in similar ways. At least I hope so.

To the silence between the words,
Silence

Answer 4

Well when I was a teenager I was into some REALLY crazy stuff, I should be dead!

But I believe that I am here now because my mother prayed for me. That is the only thing that explains it all. She has been a believer since she was a child, and I know she prayed for me alot when I was growing up. She even told me....prayer works!

You know you can pray to God now, and the only prayer I think He can answer for an unbeliever is to guide them to the truth.

But since I am a believer I can pray for you.....I pray that God leads you to the truth, and keeps you safe.

God Loves YOU
Heather :)

Answer 5

I pray everyday before I eat and before I go to bed,God has blessed wiht a great mom even though she's single raising four kids,a house,great church,food,and much more.Me praying has helped my family we have struggled finashly and God has always made a way for the bills to be payed and for us to have food.And without him I don't know where I'de be.And as for Faith if I didn't have faith that he would answer my prayers he wouldn't,prayer is important to have especially so u have a good relationship with God and can trust him.And FAith is important to have God loves when we have faith.Good luck to u!

Answer 6

Religions are not the owners of God. So there is no Christian God or other religion God as such.

I used to pray a lot. But through prayer I realised living is better than praying. The problem here is I don't know whether you can reach living without praying. So try to learn living through praying and then live with or without praying.

Praying is nothing but a conversation with our Creator. His invisible form is a problem here. Gradually you will have many experiences to know him. When you accept Him as the Creator, just know all your co-being are the same Creator's creations. Respect others as you respect your own self.

Answer 7

Gee, pray.. for me it's not like a formal thing with a "Dear Lord" at the beginning and an "Amen" at the end. I do believe in God. I was a "Churchian" for years, and then decided I didn't believe at all, and then finally committed myself to Christ. Now, after quite a few years, it's more like having someone who's just there all the time.. I talk to Him just like I would anybody near me. Like, "Oh, gee, Lord, what should I do now?" or "Wow, this room is a mess.. where should I start?" or "Oh, I can't find that important paper.. please help me find it.." and suddenly my hand is on it.. and it never ceases to amaze me. And then I thank Him.

Those things may seem trivial because I am trying to simplify. There are so many more complicated things that I believe He shows me that just wouldn't fit here. Lately He seems to have shown me that He is removing some hurts I got as a child.. so every time someone misunderstands me or corrects me when I didn't mean to do anything wrong, I see more of a change.. and I'm losing the constant self blame and "it's my fault" that I've lived with for so many years. Really nice to have something like that to trust in. I didn't used to believe it either. But I surely do now.

Answer 8

Yup I do. Sometimes I don't find myself in the mood for it, but good thing about prayer is that I don't limit or censor myself to things I should or shouldn't say. I just start by saying whatever comes to my mind, and then, surprisingly, I just ramble on.

It's being honest with a higher power which you couldn't do with anyone (even your best friends or your shrink), minus the inhibitions.

Does it help? For me, it does. It's my private time with God, and I've proven it therapeutic. Socrates once said that the unexamined life is not worth living. Prayer time provides me that time for reflection. In fact, I'd dare say some of my most lucid thoughts and realizations came my way through prayer.

But if you don't believe in God, I'd still suggest you take the time out alone to reflect on whatever's happening in your life. I think the good people of this world have two views in life: outwardly and inwardly. Peace.

Answer 9

Faith and prayer changed my life completely. I didn't go looking, God came to me. So yeah, I absolutely believe. I wouldn't want to try to live without God in my life now-a-days. Read the second chapter of the Book of Acts in the New Testament. That will get your attention. God is still that real!

Answer 10

See my answer to BillB's question, "How does God want us to pray to Him?

My experience as a "seeker" for several decades, and a follower for several more has taught me how to pray.

My experience has been, even when I was not sure about this God, and His ways, was to try it for one year. If I did not like the results, I could quit. After trying several drugs, alcohol, and many different "spiritual" avenues, I foud that they did not give me the answer for which I was looking.

I tried God's way and was free from the drugs, the alcohol, the gutter I was living in, and several other bad habits, and had something positive in my life.

The "Cycle of Faith", as I call it, is one of the mysteries of God's Word.
We all can have HOPE that there is more to life than this (whatever this is). You have done so by asking this question. "It is out of HOPE that we find FAITH".

If we take that hOPE and try to find something better, that is called FAITH.

"It is with FAITH that we find JOY." We must step out and take some action that seems totally against everything we know. Because we do not know the Mind of God. Therefore, at this stage in spiritual developement we know very little about how all this really works.
The Joy we find is the Joy of not being limited mentally or spiritually as we have been in the past.

"It is with this JOY that we discover PEACE." A true inner peace that helps us know that all is well in God's world, no matter how we see it with our earthly eyes.

And, "It is in this PEACE that we know LOVE." The real Agape Love that God has for us, and the Love we are to view the world through.
"GOD IS LOVE." So, we discover a relationship with a God we did not know for sure was real.

I call this the CYCLE of HOPE because it continues in a cyclical manner, not in a linear fashion. Once we find this Love, we have more Hope that there is more to life. With More Hope, we have More Faith.
And, with this More Faith we have More Joy. With More Joy, we have More Peace. And, in More Peace we have found More Love. And so the cycle goes throughout our lives of Faith, through Hope, by God's Grace.