How does prayer work?

Question

I came across this cartoon today and it made me think.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l11/auroradawn52/photos/howprayerworksccy6.gif

I used to be a Christian and knew how to pray, never prayed for anything for myself, worded it perfectly and prayed in total earnest, but never once got a prayer answered. I never knew anyone that got a real prayer answered.

My question is, why would God want us to pray to him if he never intends to answer any prayers? Why are answered prayers given to just a few when so many of them are genuinely selfless and asking for good things?

Please don't say that sometimes God's answer is "No". It's always "No".

Reading through these answers gave me no insight. When I said that I never prayed for myself and worded my prayers perfectly, it's because people like yourselves would always say that I didn't pray correctly and that I asked for selfish things. I was taught that you should pray for other people and not for yourself and if you needed prayers for yourself, to ask others to pray for you, otherwise God would think that you were being selfish. I see people here doing that every day. Yet when I say that, I get jumpled on immediately by those who need to judge others to make themselves feel better. My question was specifically about prayers that ask for favors, not "speaking to God" prayers. I know the difference.

When I was a Christian I prayed very earnestly, so you can't use that on me either. The four most common answers here were: God knows what's best for us. He doesn't work in our time-table. It's not in his plan. And sometimes his answer is no. Sorry, those are brainwashing pat answers drilled into you by your pastors...who obviously were taught them in Theology College because all pastors say the same thing. Some of you even admitted that prayer was a placebo, something to make you feel better when you didn't know what else to do, or an exercise in thinking compassionately. Those who say their prayers were answered obviously never asked for anything really important that would take an act of God to fix.

Answer 1

Prayer doesn't work because either god isn't real or he doesn't care. Trust me, I used to pray earnestly all the time and put my full trust in god that he would see me through the hard times. But gradually my life continued to get worse and worse despite my desperate pleas for help from him, and then my 7 year old brother died and all kinds of hell broke loose from there. Don't kid yourself with "praying" and other forms of religious self-deciet. All prayer really is is twisted mind games that people play with themselves to give themselves a false since of well-being and hope when all else is lost. And I know it sucks not being able to believe in any super-natural deitys whatsoever, but at the same time I would rather be a miserable Atheist then bullshit myself into believing in something that isn't really there and doesn't give a **** about you if such a deity even exists.

Answer 2

How does one word a prayer perfectly? And who told you that you shouldn't ever pray for yourself? I'm really, really not trying to slam you, but those aren't the requirements for getting prayer answered. There's nothing in the Bible that says that we need to pray eloquently, or that we need not pray for ourselves.

HOW prayer works is complicated, and I definitely don't fully understand it. Even what I do understand is hard to explain, but I will try.

First of all, I don't think that much prayer --- if any --- changes God's mind. That's not to say that prayer doesn't change things, just that prayer only gets answered 'yes' when it is in God's will to do something. Therefore, though a person SHOULD be praying for himself, I think it is actually 'easier' to see answered prayer when praying for others, because we are more objective, and thus more able to be led by the Holy Spirit.

Notice in the book of Daniel how Daniel was reading Jeremiah and happened to realize that the time of Israel's exile was almost up. Jeremiah had prophesied 70 years and the seventy years was almost over. So Daniel spent *weeks* in prayer and fasting for the end of exile --- even though he KNEW that this was something God was going to do! And we see, also in the book of Daniel, that at one point Daniel's prayer is interrupted by an angel, coming to tell him something. He says that he was fighting a spiritual battle and was detained. In fact, he mentions that he had been fighting 'the prince of Persia' (and, again, this was a demon prince, not an earthly prince) for 21 days. The exact amount of time that Daniel had been praying.

Does that help with what happens in prayer behind the scenes? I hope so. What prayer is doing the work of making God's will be 'on earth, as it is in heaven'. It's practical work. There are lots of aspects to prayer that I can't begin to touch --- but I will say that sometimes you get a 'feeling' when you're praying and you know the Heavens are moving. Sometimes you feel a 'thud' and you move on. It's important to pay attention and pray according to God's will --- I mean, after all, the book of James *tells* us why our prayers don't get answered --- because we pray according to our pleasures, not according to His will. In other words, we are praying for what WE want, not what He wants. If we're not being led in the Spirit in prayer, we'll only ever pray for what WE want, except by random chance, if that makes sense.

I hope this helps, email me if I be of help at all.

Also, read "The Kneeling Christian" by An Unknown Christian (Seriously, no one knows who wrote it, that's how it's listed). You can get it used off Amazon for, like fifty cents.

Answer 3

So how do you pray anyway? Fancy words? Earnestly? You give God a timeline and an agenda? Maybe God did answer your prayer, but you either weren't paying attention or chose not to listen.

My experience with prayer is that it's worked so far. The hows, whens, and whys have been mysterious, or rather uncanny, but when you find out how prayer works, tell me.

Answer 4

Hello there,

GOD does want us to pray and look to HIM always. But our prayers are not always answered the way we want them, which is sometimes a hard thing to take-- but HE knows what is best for us. I have learned this from personal experience and yes, it is hard sometimes. I still have unanswered prayers but I am still keeping the faith and if we, as Christians stay true and faithful to HIM though, HE will see us through. Hope this is of some help. :-)

Answer 5

I think that the most helpful aspect of prayer is that it helps your mind think in more compassionate ways, rather than that it is really helpful in getting you things. For example, a prayer that you will love your enemies might get you to start thinking about how to do it and really try to do it, because in a way you are talking yourself into it by realizing that it is important and trying to work toward that goal.

Scientifically, you might want to search for articles on the "efficacy of prayer." One would expect that if prayers "worked," you would be able to find evidence of it working. My cursory look showed that the research does not support the theory that prayer works. However, you may find a different result. One thing to look for is whether it matters what religion one is a member of. It would be very interesting to find out if one religion's prayers work better than others.

Answer 6

You say that prayer does not work but I know it does. Years back a young boy was hurt and the whole church prayed for him to live, not pray for the will of God but let him survive. Well he did but with a brain injury. Now you say that God does not answer prayer because he always answers "no". Maybe he knows best what you need.

Answer 7

A lot of people view God as a motorized wheel chair when he should be more like a sparsely used crutch. If you want your prayers answered, the key to having them answered is to be proactive and work towards fulfilling them yourself and leave the element requiring supernatural assistance to a minimum.

Answer 8

Well, it depends on how you pray. Attitude is everything. If you truly believe that your prayer is going to be answered it will. I believe that when you pray , you have to be calm & should be in a positive mood. Positive energy attracts positive things & your prayer will be answered in a positive way. I'm not a Christian, I don't believe in man written fictional story books, I don't pray but I always ask from the Universe what I want. Believe it or not, I have won 5 official lotteries. Try!!!

Answer 9

All I can say is that prayer isn't answered necessarily in the time-table we think it should be. There is no perfect way to pray. Any heart-felt prayer is perfect -even if you just utter His name. Don't try to be perfect--just open your heart and talk to Him like you would your best friend. He IS your best friend! I talk to Him all the time--even if I'm at work and can't pray out loud--He's always there. The most important thing is to believe. If you're feeling like He isn't there, just open your heart and mind and meditate. In your mind picture Him--focus on the beauty of His presence. I'm so afraid of the dentist, for example, and when I have to go, I close my eyes and picture Him sitting beside me holding my hand, and I get strength from Him strength. Get a Bible and read the verses about prayer. Prayer is communication, and so is reading the Bible--He speaks to you through it. All at once you'll read a verse and there it is---just what you needed to know! I will pray for you. Please try--I want for you to have this joy in your life. And DO pray for yourself--ask Him to lead you to Him. I KNOW He will!!!!

Answer 10

If you used to be a Christian and have asked Jesus to come into your heart, you are still a Christian.

I have seen real prayers answered. Like the child that had cancer, a tumor, when the doctors went in to remove the tumor, there was only the indentation of where the tumor was but there was no tumor.

Every day God hears and answers prayer.

It is faith that we need to see prayer answered. Do we actually believe that our prayers will be answered.

Trust in the Lord.