Why should one pray?

Question

If it changes God's mind then he is not sovereign. If it does not change God's mind then it is superfluous.

Answer 1

Prayer is very important if you believe in a God that is not smart enough to know what is in your best interest.

This type of God desperately needs someone to wise him up about such matters.

Love and blessings Don

Answer 2

You are not in control of God. You never will be, because just like you don't have control over anyone else on Earth, why would you think you can "change God's mind"?

I don't mean for that to sound negative, but I feel that praying is an auxilliary activity to the way you live your life. It is an act that, coupled with the suspension of disbelief anyone who lives a spiritual life undoubtedly has, can augment the positive virtues you have exhibited in your daily life. If you are sinful, hurtful, or disrepectful to others, your prayer might help if you know you should change and you let God know that. If you pray, but only pray when you need something or you only pray when someone gets hurt, and you live sinfully, that does not make sense.

I think the key here is a PERSONAL JOURNEY that prayer entails. I am sure you have felt the feeling of living a spiritual life and acting with a code of ethics or even with a religious influence, and sometimes getting "screwed" by the rest of the people in the world that don't believe in a higher being and don't believe in acting on the principles of your spiritual background... In the same light, you have to understand that prayer does not mean changing God's mind. You have to suspend that belief that you are changing his mind, because you will live your whole life and God will never "make up his mind"! You have forever to live a good life and keep him satisfied, and then prayer becomes an auxiliary exercise.

Answer 3

Prayer has been studied in a laboratory by scientists,and, check this out for yourself: It has been proven to work in a variety of ways. Really. Don't take my word for it. do an Internet search about prayer studies.....I believe that it moves and directs the flow of Universal (GOD) energy to People, Places,ect..that need it

I pray, but not in the traditional Christian way .more of a pagan/bud dist/Hindu/ American Indian/ ? way. I think Jesus was an ascended master that knew lots of really cool stuff, but so did Krishna, Mohammad, Moses,and Buddha, so i HATE TO GIVE Jesus ALL THE GLORY......Although he definitely had an agenda. Too bad these conservative christian groups have missed his point......

Getting back to prayer, I read recently about a prayer study in a San Francisco Hospital that was done some years back. 1 group of heart attack victims were prayed for by a volunteer group, and another group of heart attack patients were not...The ones that were prayed for had almost a 2 to 1 recovery rate over the other group. I read this in a Metaphysical Church bulletin awhile back. the study must be 10 to 12 years old by now, but it is a good example of what I'm talking about...

Peace to you....good Question!

One other thing. If you can think of God as the Universal God head, or the Universal governing force, it may shed a different light on the answers you get...just a thought.....

Answer 4

God's will, what he desires never changes, nor does His nature. However, He has a relationship with us in which he will allow (not cause) things to happen, but intervene (stop them from happening) if we implore his help. He is not "changing his mind" for His mind did not completely control the event in the first place, rather He is responding to a prayer, a request, with Divine Intervention.

I am a religious person, but I do not claim to have deep theological knowledge. I hope that I make sense, for this is what I know to be true, and although ultimate understanding of the situation is beyond my grasp (and that of a mankind!), I hope that it clarifies things a bit.

I am sorry if the only response you expected was "I'm stumped."

I will pray for you. And maybe instigate a little Divine Intervention in your life. Powerful, even if right now you can't understand it...

Answer 5

Yeah, exactly. The only thing I'll concede, though, is that someone who prays and honestly believes that prayer works would probably be comforted by doing it, and maybe that would help the situation out to a certain extent. That obviously doesn't mean that prayer works or that a deity is actually listening to you from up above, obviously, but I think that would explain a lot of the success that people claim to have while praying. It's like a placebo: It doesn't work, but if you THINK it's working, you may feel like you're getting something out of it.

Answer 6

Notwithstanding any reasonable doubt someone might have toward this topic in general, I don't think praying aims at changing God's mind, but it aims at inclusion in his stream of action in such a way as not to sustain more damage than you otherwise would - a tuning-in exercise, if you will, not a plea for change of direction. Not along the lines of "let me have a bicycle so that I am finally happy", but "let me be happy - bicycle or not". So, in my opinion, people who pray successfully do so in order to be more in tune with what's going to happen.
Oh, you're finding "pray successfully" funny? I would, too, if I hadn't read an article lately about a study conducted somewhere in connection with conceiving which concluded that couples who were being prayed for without their knowledge were more likely to conceive than the control group.
Really took me off my cair...

Answer 7

What I am about to say is not going to change your mind. Is it superfluous? No, it's communication. Why talk to anyone? Because it leads to understanding. Prayer is just talking to God.

Answer 8

Why you ask? It is because you’re in the middle of something not good? Is it a call of heart? When we pray,.. we talk to God…. We build personal relationship with HIM. God is our father, just like an ordinary father, God want us to be close with HIM.

Its your decision, if we Pray then its great! Nothing lose. We only live a better life.

Answer 9

What if it isn't about changing God's mind but about focusing your own awareness more effectively?
What if your situations and conditions are much more controlled by your expectations, reactions, and attitudes than anything God or Goddess does or does not do?

Answer 10

God wants us to pray because this creates a relationship with him. When you pray and ask him for things it is given. If you don't talk to God about things in prayer He will not give you the things you ask for (not talking about money). He knows what you need before you pray, He just wants you to have a relationship in Him where you have to have faith.