If prayer really works....?

Question

why hasn't the war ended?.
why aren't people's loved ones healed of disease?.
why do bad people continue to thrive?

You know that millions of people have prayed for these particular things and nothing has happened.
What's left to believe about praying when there's more proof it doesn't work than that it does?

Answer 1

if it doesn't work to you, then don't pray, period! stop asking senseless question!

Answer 2

prayer is expression of our wish.

most religions have a cocept of God or a supreme power, or a creator/sustainer/destroyer. Who they believe is the root cause for everything that happens - good or bad. The prayers are typically addressed to God.

God hasn't been explained unambiguously by any religion. It begins with mystry, describes mystry, and ends with mystry. The explanations given from this mystry-centric literature - are mysterious themselves. They demand faith, and discourage logic. Each religion has its own mysterious explanation, symbols, and rituals. None has resulted in any one man becoming resolved.

If we sometimes feel that our prayers are getting answered - it is the result of our own efforts for making our wish happen. If we wish something strongly, and in nature there is a possibility for having a favourable solution - and our efforts go in that direction - and we become successful... then we start attributing that success to the God who we had done prayer to. If we become unsuccessful - we sometimes curse that God, or accept this as fate. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Logic is not invited here. It is the explanation in circles.

So what is the way out? Understand oneself, Understand Existence. Understand the right conduct. Understanding these leads to establishment of the truth - that the existence is definitive. It is not uncertain. Human can understand existence. Human desires with design of existence are met with certainity. There is no approving authority. There is no authority passing judgments. One doesn't need an outside anchor - but can have confidence in oneself.

Answer 3

People choose to go to war
God teaching patience
And also a test: will you blame God to what happen to you
I wonder will you pray to God when you're are happy?
Will you only pray if something bad is happening
People choose to be bad
People only pray when they need something
Prayer is communicating God not asking him bunch of things like a genie in a bottle
And yes he answers prayer when he know it will be good for you and to show you how much he loves someone

Bad things happen when you don't say away from it
Stay away from trouble it will stay away from you
Like Don't talk to strange your mom warns you but you didn't listen so now you're are rape
It's not God's will bad things happen to you
It's men own doing
Why let it happen because you're stubborn enough not to listen to advices
Do you pray before leaving the house to keep you safe?
And I don't believe in coincidence when I am bless with a job I love and God keeps me safe from harm
When God guides me through out the day when I pray to him
when I listen to him

Answer 4

Before I respond to your question, let me say that when I use the term G-D, I speak from a Kemetic perspective because I am an orthodox Kemetic priest. The perspective which my faith holds - alledges that G-D is one spirit who vastness and individuality is unknowable and impossible to comprehend. To aid humanity in understanding, G-d, divided itself into many individualizations or personifications. Each is distinct unto itself yet each is also part of the one spirit we call G-D. Each is G-D. This spirit (G-D) appears to be different to all who see him. To one G-D appears as a woman, to another a man, to still another an old man.
However G-d appears to every individual, he still remains G-D.

The word for this definition of God is called Monolateralism or Monolateraly.

The Hindu faith is said to be an example of a monolateral faith.
The Kemetic faith is another example.
Some religious scholars suggest that Christianity is a third example in that God is seen as One being which appears in 3 distinct individualizations (Father/Son/Holy Spirit)
Native Americans call G-D Great Spirit and all Diety spoken of are but personifications of that one Great Spirit.

Now, having said this, I will continue in answering your question on prayer.

No one faith or religion holds the corner on market so to speak when it comes to prayer. The faithful of many if not all religions petition G-D through prayer, or invocation, petition, evocation.

This is true whether the person praying is a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Pagan, a Hindu, or a Buddhist to name some of the few religions that exist.

The thing to remember is that roughly as many people are praying for something as against it. The strength of a prayer depends the faith of the person praying. This is a perspective which many religions share. The greater the faith a person has, the more likely a person's prayer will be answered quickly...so say many religious scholars.

Another thing to remember when discussing prayer is that G-d answers a person's prayer when he thinks the time is appropriate. The time God thinks is appropriate for manifestation of an answer does not necessarily jive with the time a person wants his/her prayer manifest.

God's timing is not man's timing and man's timing is not that of God.

Many philosophers and religious leaders spanning centuries have asked the same questions as you have written. None have come up with definitive answers to them. There does not seem to be a definitive response that addresses all of the issues you raise.

Doctrines from all religions seek to address these questions and the answers feel some with peace and others with unrest.

All seem to agree on one thing.

The physical dimension which seems so real is really illusionary.
Einstein physicists would say it is really a 3-d holographic image
and nothing more than that. The image is made up of energy which looks real because it appears to be matter. But matter is just very so moving energy. Matter is just a state of energy. That is why matter and energy seem to be interchangeable

Christian doctrine would liken this dimension to an area where we
undergo our individual and collective final exams.......to see how well we understood G-D's lessons for us.

The same view is held by Buddhists and Hidus.

Some souls have more difficulty in mastering their lessons then others. Some are younger then others. Some would claim that such people are 'bad'. Other people would claim, they are 'young and immature'.

The answers one receives depends largely on the person one approaches.

Personally, I believe our ability to accept the things we ask G-D for ultimately determines when or even if we receive what we want via prayer.

If you ask God for help in a situation, but then refuse the help when it is given for whatever the reason, did the prayer go unanswered or did you refuse the help that G-D gave in answer to your request.

War is a construct of Man. If God were to stop all war; heal all disease and end all inequality, he would have to take away someone's free will. He cannot do that as he gave mankind free will- not just the followers or one religion or another.

Anothing thing to remember, God works through humans whenever possible. When you ask God for something in prayers and really let go of any preconceptions as to how the answer should be manifest, people and circumstances seem to appear out of nowhere to help bring what is asked for in prayer and clothe such in reality.
Unfortunately, often times we are so determined to receiving only particular types of responses from G-D, that we are blind to any others G-D might give us.

That does not mean he did not answer our prayers. It means the answers he gives may be invisible to us.

Hope this helps.
Nemtetsemnewty

Answer 5

Prayers that work seem to be few and probably are fortunate coincidences...the ones that don't work people tend to conveniently forget about...it's just that many people turn to superstition when they are in a panic or feeling a bit desperate...other people take more practical measures to get themselves out of a fix I am pretty sure which of the two I think has a higher success rate.

Answer 6

Prayer works but the Bible says that everything is beautiful in His time. Pray for mens hearts to change and the Christians to fall on their face and worship the Creator. PRAY FOR REVIVAL!!

Trust Jesus knows Best. He created this whole universe and beyond Remember

Answer 7

JewishGirl,
The torah, bible, and koran all say we are his children.

The bible even says that your prayer will be answered if you belive just a little bit.

If it does work then why are true belivers not praying for these things?

Answer 8

in order for a prayer to work you have to keep praying everyday to God, i have had many prayers that have works coz i beliefed and i kept trying.. i wanted good exams results n i prayed 4 a whole year until my exams n it worked...i also prayed one night for sumthing tht i realli needed to work and it came true the next day...prayers only work for people who have real faith. you dont have faith since you are asking this question..

Answer 9

because praying doesnt actually work. for the person praying, it might make them feel good that they are doing it, but there is no way that this fictional character called God is gonna grant their prayers

Answer 10

How many prayers of you are answered positively by your mom and Dad or friends?

Answer 11

Sometimes I feel the same way, like you have to see it to believe it, or when someone rapes or molest a little kid, why would god let that happen?