I need answers from Xians, Muslims, Jews please?

Question

Have you ever had a prayer answered? If so, did God change his plans based upon your prayer, or would the result have been the same anyways (according to God's will, if you like)?

Example: You're daughter is sick, and you pray for her to get well. Eventually, she does. Does this mean that God would have let her remain sick or even die had you not prayed, or does it mean that she would have recovered anyways?

I'm not denying God's involvement in the outcome (that's a different arguement)...I'm just asking does our prayer change God's plans? If so, don't you find that belief a bit egotistical? If not, then how can you claim your prayers have been answered?

Proud - What's your problem?

Is Xians offensive? How so, I thought it was an abbreviation of Christians...like Xmas.

Sarah J - I'm happy your bro is ok...but my question is would God have saved your brother anyway without your prayers? Did your parents change God's mind about allowing your brother to die?

KEL & VW - GREAT Answers.

Answer 1

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6,7).


As a parent I sometimes know what my children need, but God always knows. This leads to the question :"Why pray if God knows my needs?"
God wants us to pray because it means we have a relationship with Him. God ordains not only the ends but the means. To ask this question is like asking "Why get dressed in the morning and go to work?" God has ordained that the work we do and the prayers we say both produce results. The fact that God knows the future does not imply that our futures are fatalistically determined any more than our knowledge that the sun will rise causes the sun to rise.
While God knows what we need before we even ask, our prayers are acknowledgements of our dependence on him.

It feels good to pray and hand over my problems to God. It gives me a peace about things.

Answer 2

yes, my little brother was very sick.
He had a rare blood disease when he was born.
The doctors told my parents if we cant find a solution then your son will die within the next week or so.
My parents prayed night and day, and the doctors found a solution.
They did surgery, and today he is a walking miracle.
I mean this literally, when he walks you can see light around him, i swear.

And i thank God he let my brother live, because he makes me laugh every single day (even if we fight) and i love him to death.

EDIT:
Oh im sorry, i didnt understand your Question. Well God knows all, he knows what will happen to everyone, he knows what will happen in the future and etc. So i think that he obviously knew that my brother had this disease, and he knew that my parents were going to pray. So even if God didnt accept their prayers then there would have been a reson for that, and probably we would not know what that reason would be. But again God knows all and sees all, so he has the utmost knowledge. Maybe in another person's case, someone is severly sick and he dies at a young age. And someone might say, "God why did you let my son die?" or something like this..well maybe if he had lived his sickness it would have spread and gotten worse. And the boy would have lived a terrible life, and could have infected someone else. Do you get what i am saying..there is a reason behind everythong, and whether we understand it or not....it is all in God's knowlaedge.

Plain and simple, even if God had let my brother remain sick, or if my brother had dies at a young age then there would have been a reason..just like there was a reason why my brother is living today.
Hope that answered it.

Answer 3

well..i don't think u can really, positively, without a doubt, know if your prayers actually work or if it would've worked out anyway even if you didn't pray.
If you could time-travel, you can pray for something, see if it works or not. Then time-travel back , not pray this time, and see if it works.

I think praying does help. It brings up the percentage of what you want done, so to speak.
And God takes that into consideration from the very beginning, when God makes his plan.
I think..that god already has a plan. God doesn't change the plan according to what you do or don't do. It's because God already knows what you'd do.

So somehow, i kind of relate God's "plan" to mathematics.
At the very beginning of time, God takes everything into consideration (if you prayed or not, if you did all you could or not, if others did all they could or not). God then adds all of this up in a kind of percentage.

(Please don't criticize my way of relating to God's way of doing things in the form of mathematics. Because i think that God's ways are far beyond our comprehension and we can only explain it according to what we know.)

So yea. Praying probably helps.

P/s: I'm Muslim, I believe there's something out there that's bigger than all of us, & I'm not exactly a religious person but I'm trying ^.^

Answer 4

There were two times in my life that I asked the Lord for something, both times involved my newborn daughters. The first was in 1971 my wife gave birth prematurely (at five months) our daughter was born alive and I prayed that God would sustain her. It didn’t happen. I was angry at God and I lost what little faith I had. That lasted 28 years.

In April of 1998 we had another daughter born to us. She had a heart defect called a PDA. The doctors wanted to wait until she was at least a year old to operate because the standard practice at that time was to correct the problem by open heart surgery but the condition worsened. At nine months of age they decided they had to operate.

Two things happened. I confessed my sins to Christ, asked Him back into my life, was born again and I prayed that there would not be a repeat of the earlier tragedy. Two days before the scheduled operation our pediatrician called to tell us of a new experimental surgery to correct the problem that did not require “cracking the chest.”

We opted for the then experimental ligation surgery. Summing it all up my daughter is now a healthy nine-year-old. The use of the riskier open heart surgery was eliminated. The operation was over in an hour and we were back at home that night. Recuperation was all but instantaneous with only four small incisions on the back and side to heal. She has no scar down the middle of her chest and only two small scars on her back.

Did God intervene on my behalf? I think so. Would she have been healed by the open heart surgery, possibly? Would her life been at greater risk? Yes. Would she have healed as quickly? No. Would she be scared for life? Yes. Would my faith have been renewed had she not lived? Doubtful.

So now I don’t usually pray for “something”. My daily devotionals are primarily thanksgiving for the many blessing the Lord has bestowed on my life, to glorify Him and humbly accept His will. As an older parent I do pray daily for the strength, stamina, wisdom, patience and longevity to raise my daughter to adulthood.

Since I woke up on the green side of the grass this morning I have to assume that my prayer is being answered.

Answer 5

To the first person who answered. How can you report him, his question does not insult anybody, and is well laid out - you are off your rocker mate!

Prayer is an act of faith, it does not matter if it is answered or not, the person who prays gets comfort and solace from the act of praying, laying of some of the worry onto a supposed higher power - it does no harm (I believe that it does not good either but that’s my view) so let them do it. That is unless they are so entranced with the belief of the power of prayer that they do not allow other medical practice to take place but live in the deluded world of the fanatic that god will provide and it is gods will, ect ect. Then it can become a problem.

Answer 6

God does not obey time or any reasons. They obey God. So there is nothing like God changing plans. God already knows who will do what but He shows ourselves what we really are.

People pray for themselves, not to change any plans. And all prayer is answered. However people sometimes get what they need, not what they want.

If you go to a doctor and ask for a specific medicine, doctor will look at you first and decide if it is good for you or not. If it is not, doctor can give you another or a better medicine.

Answer 7

When you get very specific answers to very specific prayers, I think you can pretty confidently say that God has answered. I have had many answers to prayer eg When I first became a Christian, I was unemployed and having a lot of financial difficulties. My vacuum cleaner broke down and I have asthma. I knew it was wrong to ask for money but I asked God to provide some way for me to get a vacuum cleaner. I was at church the next day and someone I didn't yet know came over to me and asked if I needed one as they had a really good spare that they didn't use. They said that they felt that God was leading them to ask me. Another time, I felt that He was asking me to give all the money that I had for that week to a people that were more needy than me. In obedience I did and planned to make lots of soup with dried grain for the week. I just asked Him to provide for me. No one knew about this except me and the Lord and that week I had so many visitors and each brought a gift of food. I ate steak, fresh salmon, cooked ham, pavlovas, fruit. There was even someone left a basket of eggs at my door. That's only 2 examples out of many but you start to realise that with God there are no coincidences just Godincidences. They are maybe not world changing but it just shows what a lovely God we have. I am Christian.

Answer 8

Back in the day he would do things that would be considered miracles to us only so that people would know who he is. Like pharaoh and plagues. That happened mostly because pharaoh was saying “who is this god you’re speaking of? I am the morning noon and night”. This was probably the same with most of his subjects and locals. So it was fitting that God displayed his power, thus the account could be penned later and used as reference. So the bottom line is, there is a time and a place for everything and right now the current times we are living in are not the time for Miracles. We are actually living in the Final book of revelations.

So according to the Bible, really nobody should be seeing any Angels, burning bushes, resurrections or healings.

Answer 9

i have heard Christians be offened by Xians, but to the contrary to ur Q...i have known my most deepest prayer answered when i was accused of something i am inocent of too this day...i was even taken to court almost on trial...everything was set but all the right ppl showed up at all the wrong times...eventually the charges were droped and i passed a lie detector...i feel like this was God, because the night before i prayed so hard that i had to write my prayer out on paper...turns out i was freed of any charges...so i say prayer works.

Allah makes tests for us...to see if we pass or fail or if we stay faithful to Allah...of course Allah already knows but He wants us to know it too

Answer 10

Okay,please concentrate on my response,it is a bit complicated,but i will try to explain.When a human is born,it is born with preplanned major events only such as time of death,having a certain number of children, the level of wealth he or she will acquire,and fallen ill to cancer for example.As fo minor events,such as getting a speeding ticket,getting into a fist fight in school are not preplanned by the Creator.When a major event occurs,cancer for example,we pray for wellness,now if wellness occurs,that is because god already knew that we will be praying for wellness,and so god had already moved up the time of death of the ill person,thus,our prayers are answered.Things of a major impacts are known to god,so is our reaction to them.Oh my god,now im confused.lol.