What is prayer?

Question

Does God really alter things for the faithful who reach out to him, leaving the others twisting in the wind, or is prayer just socially accepted madness?

Answer 1

Prayers are requests by confessedly unworthy persons to have the laws of the universe repealed in their favor.

Another absurdity is imbedded in the fact that every religion claims to pray to the one only true god. How can such contradiction be rationalized? Who is the true god? Allah, or Jesus, or Jehovah, or Buddha, or Krishna?

Where was the Jewish God Jehovah, when Hitler incinerated six million of his chosen people; where was the Buddha when Truman vaporized 250,000 Japanese women and children; where was the Christian God when Stalin killed thirty million Christians?

It defies rationality when religious persons pray to these same gods for individualized help and salvation.

If our appeals to our God are successful and if He seems to solve our problem, he gets credit for the miracles he works. However, if he does not resolve our predicament, religious persons blame his lack of cooperation on insufficient prayer, the unworthiness of the supplicant, the lack of proper sacrifices, or the inscrutable ways of god.

A person with rational thought processes is more likely to achieve his desired objectives, including enhanced survival and lasting happiness, than a person relying on prayer.

Answer 2

Prayer! Communication with God, the Almighty, the Creator and Savior! Prayer is worship addressed to the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is having two-way fellowship with God. It's not just talking TO God, but WITH God.



After Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, man could no longer stand face to face with God. So God instituted prayer to permit man to communicate with Him. Since then, prayer and meditation according to His Word, have drawn men and women closer to God. He has provided innumerable answers to prayer, some miraculous, and some small. But no request is too small for the Lord to hear.







Prayer is one of the hardest things to do. Why? Because we don't always see instant results. My experience has been that God does indeed answer prayers. Oftentimes my plan is not His plan, and His schedule is not my schedule. Accepting His plan and truly putting Him first is difficult, but when I am able to do so, I find that I am always blessed.



Prayer Is

Prayer brings peace to the restless,
It changes things you know.
The more you pray, the more your faith,
Will grow and grow and grow.

Prayer is sweet communion,
With a friend who really cares.
No matter what the problem is,
No matter when or where.

Prayer is like food to the hungry,
It fills an empty soul.
And then when the prayers are answered,
Your faith in God will grow.

Prayer is the key to Heaven,
Where the angels sing each day.
And when the door is open,
God is listening while we pray.


Poem by © Becca



There is no power on earth, or anywhere,
that can stop Christians,
when we are on our knees in prayer with our Father!

"Therefore confess your sins to one another,
and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.
The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."
James 5:16

Answer 3

God doesn't change or alter things but make us strong to accept whatever is thrown at us. This is how I look at the prayer in my own case.

Answer 4

I think prayer is a form of personal meditation; a way for a person to take everything into consideration, and tell themselves what they really want, or what's really on their mind. It's almost as if God is a omnipotent, more than human psychiatrist. But it keeps people in check; so crazy or not it helps.

Answer 5

Speaking with your Heavenly Father is Prayer.

Answer 6

Prayer for many is personal and continuous. It does not have to be structured, it is a personal communion or connection with God.

Answer 7

I see prayer as a method of meditation that need not be religious. Putting those thoughts out there can be powerful!

Answer 8

Read this incident please.

A missionary returning home from Africa, was sharing his story with his church family .
" While serving at a small field hospital, every two weeks I traveled through the countryside to a nearby city for supplies.

This was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital. Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously injured.

I treated him for his injuries and at the same time talked to him about the Lord. I then traveled two days, camping overnight, and arrived home without incident. Two weeks later I repeated my journey. Upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me that he had known I carried money and medicines. He said, 'Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight.

We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards.'




At this I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone in that jungle campsite.

The young man pressed the point, however, and said, 'No sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My five friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone.'"

At this point in the sermon, one of the men in the congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary and asked if he could tell him the exact day this happened. The missionary told the congregation the date, and the man who interrupted told him this story:
"On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I was preparing to go play golf.

I was about to putt when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong, I called men in this church to meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for you. Would all of those men who met with me on that day stand up?" The men who had met together to pray that day stood up. The missionary wasn't concerned with who they were, he was too busy counting how many men he saw.

There were 26!

Now decide.
May GOD Bless U.

Answer 9

God really does alter things when you pray to him. He'll even alter history for you.

Answer 10

it is a ticket to get in to the heaven.