Ever Wonder If We Pray For the Wrong Thing

[LambkinLou7]

I pray all the time, even in public.  Who cares if people stare at me.  What bothers me is if I am praying correctly, if I am praying for the right thing.  I would love it if there was no more illness, pain, greed, murder, sorrow, selfishness etc.  I know that if I pray for peace in the world I won't get it directly.  Maybe something small happens to give us a taste of peace.  I stopped praying that my illness with be cured because, it just seems selfish and that I am supposed to have it.  If everyone in the world were well then we won't learn.  I pray that people can get jobs, then I see an article that says 120K jobs have been added during the month of March.  Maybe as a people with have to pray for the right things together.

[falcon9]

I pray all the time, even in public.  Who cares if people stare at me.

If it were in public, near me, I'd employ my equal option to publically object, (your religious display is just as 'rude' to me as my response may be to you). 

What bothers me is if I am praying correctly, if I am praying for the right thing. 

If you're begging, ("praying"), for anything, it's an exercise in futility, (a 'magical evocation' which has no discernable/attributable result), and a moot point.

I pray that people can get jobs, then I see an article that says 120K jobs have been added during the month of March. 

That was not a result of superstitious 'prayers', employers add jobs, (not hypothetical 'deities').

Maybe as a people with have to pray for the right things together.

Maybe people will start realizing that 'prayer' has never gotten anything done except falsely attribute effects to the incorrect causes and thus insult those who are actually responsible for getting things done.

[queenofnines]

It doesn't matter what you pray for; none of it will ever come true because of a prayer.  So do something else to try and save the world.

[ULuvCeCe]

I stopped praying that my illness with be cured because, it just seems selfish and that I am supposed to have it.

I too pray, often before I go to sleep and have learned too not to ask for things such as the above or generalized things, they have to be very specific things. I know there are a lot of people on here that don't believe in prayer which is fine. Some people that don't pray just vent to their friends/family, most of us are too old for it but others keep a journal/diary or better yet get on threads/forums. In the end if that is how people cope with hardships to each his own

[gramev64]

What a wonderful post!  Sometimes like they say it's a good thing God doesn't answer all our prayers, because only He knows what it best and most of the time, we don't, its just our selfish way that we want.  God help me to be a better person and pray for peace, all people struggling with all kinds of issues, love for our fellow man and the spreading of His Word for Salvation through His one and only Son who died for our sins.

[JediJohnnie]

It doesn't matter what you pray for; none of it will ever come true because of a prayer.  So do something else to try and save the world.

[sigmapi1501]

They have everything covered!  If you pray for something and don't get it, you were not supposed to get it. If something awful happens, it was God's will.

[falcon9]

They have everything covered!  If you pray for something and don't get it, you were not supposed to get it. If something awful happens, it was God's will.

That's the 'ole 'heads I win, tails you lose' logical fallacy many religious adherrents are so fond of.

[JediJohnnie]

They have everything covered!  If you pray for something and don't get it, you were not supposed to get it. If something awful happens, it was God's will.

I don't personally think if something awful happens it's God's Will.There is the little matter of Free Will,where God allows Mankind to go their way.It's not God's Will that man should hurt his fellow man,but God allows it because of Free Will.

God is not a magic genie that grants our every desire.1 John 5:15 says "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us."God answers prayer when it's in line with His Will.That's why we pray "Thy will be done."It's never "My will be done".

[falcon9]

God is not a magic genie that grants our every desire.1 John 5:15 says "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us."God answers prayer when it's in line with His Will.That's why we pray "Thy will be done."It's never "My will be done".

Yet, there are innumerable xtians who are using 'prayer' as a magical evocation, (no matter whose "will" they are requesting be done; they beg for something to change and for their preferred 'deity' to be the instrument of such change).  If everything is the "will" of a hypothetical deity anyway, 'prayer' is superfluous and irrational.

[banderson5]

i know i have prayed for the wrong thing in the past or at least it felt wrong. you never know what God has in store for you

[dauna]

You may well have prayed for something you shouldn't have prayed for.  I know I have.  So?  You pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep talking to God.  Will He hear you?  Is there a God to even hear you?  I can't prove there is.  I can't prove there isn't.  I believe there is.  God will or won't exist whether I believe or not.  If He isn't out there--well, iin the end the cosmic joke is on me, isn't it?

I don't look upon prayer as an automatic panacea, but then I don't look upon prayer as the same type of thing all the time.  Sometimes it's asking for some help for me or someone else--like a guy I don't know very well, but I do know that at the moment his marriage is falling apart.  He has kids.  He could use all the extra help he can get.  What's the harm of asking?

Sometimes prayer is just a way to let God know what's on my mind.  I know--like He doesn't already know anyhow.  Still--it makes me feel better and easier in my mind.  Again, where's the harm?

This God business is an ongoing learning process for me.  I'm still at the glass-darkly stage.

[falcon9]

Is there a God to even hear you?  I can't prove there is. God will or won't exist whether I believe or not.  If He isn't out there--well, iin the end the cosmic joke is on me, isn't it?

I'm still at the glass-darkly stage.

It wouldn't be a very funny joke though, would it?

[SherylsShado]

I wonder more about who is answering the prayer.  

I don't believe God is the only one that can answer prayer.   Satan can do many things that God can do.  Satan is the "great deceiver".  Satan knows that what tempts one person won't tempt another.  I believe satan knows our desires, our weaknesses (but not our thoughts).  I believe if we are praying for something that we really want and God's answer is "no" or "not now", that satan might take that "want" and present it to us "on a silver platter" with every detail looking like it came straight from God.  If one is praying & seeking God's will, God will let one know that this...it's not from Him.  Those that ignore God's voice and accept it anyway, and perhaps try to "claim it as answered prayer" will soon realize that they have been deceived.  That "answered prayer" will turn one's life into a living nightmare.  

Make sure your "answered prayer" was answered by God, don't accept anything that God doesn't want you to have...no matter how great it seems or if it looks "as if it was meant to be".  If God hadn't intended it to be for you, trust me...you don't want it.  

(@dauna:great post!)

[falcon9]

I wonder more about who is answering the prayer.

One option is "no one". 

I don't believe God is the only one that can answer prayer.   Satan can do many things that God can do.  Satan is the "great deceiver".  Satan knows that what tempts one person won't tempt another.  I believe satan knows our desires, our weaknesses (but not our thoughts).

All of which are unsubstantiated superstitious beliefs. Conversely and as an opposing point of view, I don't believe any of that is true because there is no evidence presented to support such claims.
 

I believe if we are praying for something that we really want and God's answer is "no" or "not now", that satan might take that "want" and present it to us "on a silver platter" with every detail looking like it came straight from God.  

Since there is no evidence that any effects can be attributed to the cause of 'praying' to anything, the point is moot.