Prayer-For guidance or results?

[WEATHER53]

I think we pause and/or mediatate as we move through the day seeking inspiration for the right thoughts and actions. I do not believe prayer is for asking that the federal tax refund arrive in the mail today.

[Lindaloo]

LOL!!

[GalvestonDuck]

True. Don't most people ask for forgiveness, give thanks for blessings, seek guidance, and pray for loved ones when they offer up prayers? Then there are the few who pray to win the lottery.

[Miss Mary]

Weather53 - my husband would agree with you. My mother, Catholic, is praying to statues all the time. Asking for very specific needs - new houses for friends, jobs for some out of work. We're in the college stage for our oldest daughter, going into her Senior year in HS this Fall. Of course the subject of college tuition has been coming up. My mom then gives us a small baby Jesus statue, that was blessed by a Priest too, to pray to. "Ask for help with college tuition Mary, he'll answer your prayers"! I should add that my husband and I were born and raised Catholic too. We were never taught to pray for material items. But rather to pray for guidance, or for answers. Please God, point me in the right direction, sort of thing. And praying for OTHERS was what we were taught. I don't know where my Mom got this idea is okay, but all of her friends do it too. They even bury a St. Joseph statue under the front porch, of someone's home who wants to buy another house. Apparently that works! Maybe it's the front porch of the house they want? I don't know! All I know is that I think it's all hogwash.

Mary

[azskyman]

Prayers should be for understanding, for forgiveness, for wisdom, for faith, for strength, for open minds, for compassion.

Too often I hear others praying for healing of a disease, for a better job to make a better living, for money to get a new car, or for someone else to see the wrong in his ways.

Prayer is for understanding God's will...even appreciating it, even in times of great loss or sorrow or disappointment.

We can pray also to see and recognize good things before us, new windows and doors that open, and to appreciate that which we have, not that which we do not.

One of the most difficult, but perhaps the most important, is the prayer to let go of someone you love and trust that God will always touch the shoulder of the one you do not want to let go.

[Amanzi]

Prayer is for understanding God's will...even appreciating it, even in times of great loss or sorrow or disappointment.

Im gonna take that one step further and say prayer helps us to find God's will for our lives on a daily basis, praying for strength helps us stay in it. A lot of the time we dont understand why we dont get the answers we want or like, but thats just it, Gods will be done (not mine!)

[WEATHER53]

God gave us instincts and itellect for a purpose-to use it. Praying about whether or not to buy a car or a house is spiritual make believe. The off track nature, or sins if you wish, of people's defective actions is that this gift of instinct and intellect becomes misaligned. It becomes misaligned thru self serving agendas of selfish human nature and by this point we are against the will of a higher power. We do not suffer from a need to abandon our will but rather realign our will with the the will of a higher power-seeking such through prayer and meditation-and thus our intellect and instincts can return to a proper alignment/function for the full beneift of their God given purposes.

[WEATHER53]

Bumped this as I am surprised at the lack of response considering the prayerful nature of many on here. This was Not a tongue in cheek starter. I do find that a large number of people pray for things, ie objects or tangible results, which to me demeans petitioning to a higher power and exhibits an element of selfishness that is counter to the "atmosphere" of prayer. Comments? Thanks.

[chadtm80]

I'm here because it works

The rest of us are here because we like it

[Lindaloo]

I'm here because it works

The rest of us are here because we like it

AMEN!!!

[WEATHER53]

I am going to change that signature. It was never intended to mean I am here only because it works. It was a compliment to the functionality of your site versus the disfunctionality of the other site which had such frequent outages. Glad to clarify this and apologize if there was a perceived slight.