Praying

[sonesay 7]

I cant say I believe in everything I've read so far in the bible but I have to say something strange happen during the times I did pray recently. First time was a few months ago, I've had some nice church people visit me and give me bible lessons at home. They came like every two weeks or so and read a few paragraphs with me and It was nice. I always get inspired by what I hear from them. They we talked about prayer and they suggested I should try it. Most all know its a way to open up to god and such things.So I gave it a shot. at the time I was feeling down and unmotivated with my work plus alot of stress in day to day life. that night I prayed and asked him for strength to get by and the next day I was able to get alot done. fixed some programming problems that had been slowing me down for weeks and made progress. At that time I was starting to believe and remeber some wise words from one of my friends 'perseverance' he was right hard work pays off. The next ocasion was last night I was again not doing too well so I did a prayer before I went to sleep. I asked for help to learn more about him so I could try and make up my mind if I was going to believe or not. The more you know the more you beleive. This morning I got up pretty early took out the rubbsih for collection, had breakfast. I tried to do some work but it was too early so I ended up broswing the internet. I got tired then went to bed again . I was half asleep till almost mid day then I heard people knocking on the door. It was the church people. They didnt visit me in while and it was strange that I prayed and then they came that morning. I was kind of freaked out but still sleepy. My lil brother came in and saw me still in bed so he told him I was asleep. THey left and I was still amazed and trying to figure out what happen. Some may say its a coincidence and I thought about it too but I dont know.what do you guys think?

[danielscottisilva 0]

I think religious is a thing very important in a life of a person, because the faith of a person represents everything of it believes, and doesn't matter with you are spirit, catolic, islamic, or whatever, if you believe there a god, it's enough. And religian is a complement of a faith...

[t3jem 0]

I hear you. I've found how powerful God is through prayer as well. With school and just other problems in life. In fact, one of my friends aren't gay anymore through prayer. I know that God is very powerful and he will do whatever you ask of him in faith.

[KansukeKojima 0]

That is really. Cool. Prayer is very amazing. I mean, the God of the universe, listens to me? Like wow! That is incredible. He loves so much, even though were only a small part of the universe, he listens to us.... its wonderful, and awesome.

[nabeel 0]

u dont need to go some where, do some thing, and in any specific way to pray!God is around u, God is in Uu just have to make a link, and ask wht u want to askJust always be in contact with the God

[LukeT 0]

I most definitely believe in the power of God and the power of prayer. I was raised as a Christian, so I can't remember a time when my relationship with God wasn't a central part of my identity. Prayer is the connection point of that bond.For me, prayer is deeper than the words, sometimes. It includes moments where I need comfort and I just experience the world while focusing on my awareness of God. I'll watch a hummingbird flitting about the flora in our yard, thinking of God being aware of the same thing, and I just experience the fact that He and I are there at the same moment, watching it together. In those moments I can feel at peace, and for a time I can let go the things that gnaw at me. I think this is a type of prayer. It's rather like a mostly wordless thankfulness to God for life.As to the people showing up after you prayed for help in learning more about him; I'm not at all surprised. I would say it sounds like you reached out to him, and He reached back to you through His servants. It's not the end of the world that you didn't speak to them right then. God can be very patient. You might consider seeking them or someone at your local church to get more information from. If any challenges present themselves, just remember that overcoming them is but a small, temporary challenge in the way of a great reward.

Edited February 2, 2008 by LukeT (see edit history)

[Amiel 0]

I believe in Praying. Praying could give out Miracles and some good things. Praying could release your problems, praying is the way in talking to our beloved God. Praying is a good habit where you could ask for help, ask for good things, and others that wont hurt others.If your prayers are not yet answered, just dont lose hope, maybe it's not yet the right time to ask for the things that you ask. Or if your prayers are not answered, maybe there is something wrong with you, you need a little or a big change. Be faithful.

[verdant 0]

prayer is a really intresting thing. like it was said above. it really does go deeper than words. god, the creator of us, the one who looks into and can perfectly read our hearts really doesnt need words from us to understand what is going on. so in my opinion, prayer is more of a thing for us to re prove our faith to ourselves and show to god how much we can open up to him. which is 100% if you like it or not.but the idea of not needing words really set me on a new idea. i had heard of several people who prayed by letting our all their negativity and throwing their burden on god. as you're supposed to but after a while their reached a point where they felt like they had nothing to say, i felt this too. after a while i enjoyed simply sitting doing nothing and enjoying the openness with god that cost me nothing. i felt like the being that was infinite love and perfect understanding wasnt just some far off entity in another relm but i felt connected, like he was next to me, inside of me and in everything else he has created.sometime later i decided to leave my congregation, because i didnt like the people and i felt that christianity was very constricting and relied too much on fear to control its faithful. and thus i embarked on my own journy to find other embodiments of gods love. i found eastern religion, i found paralels, and i found that it would make no sense for a god who is love to take his beloved creation and only show people in the west the light. and soon after i found meditation. i found meditation to be amazingly paralel to praying. it depended on the type and reason for meditation. but after a certain point i found a unifying point between meditation and prayer. in prayer i found that after getting comfortable in my praying, emptying out my heart and finaly not haveing anything more to say, i got to a point where i felt somewhat fufilled and i didnt want to stop praying. i had reached a state of peace where i felt forgiven for my mistakes and i could forgive myself for my mistakes.in meditation the method is almost exactly the same but in order to understand why they dont have the same ideas you have to understand their cultural differences. in asia there was no jesus, no prophecies about god, heaven, second coming or anything. in a way it was like they we're forced to find their own way. and in doing so found that bit of divinity within human beings. and when their found this divine spark they didnt know what to call it. they didnt have things like jesus, yhwh, or angels to make sense of all this. so they called it undefinable, beyond human reasoning, the tao, and enlightenment.but all the same they were able to find that same peace that comes over you when you form a open connection with god. and with that frequency of thought they were able to find ways to handle the human condition. if you were to look at prominent persons in the history of Eastern thought. Taoist masters, Gurus and buddhas they all are accounted to have done things like jesus. holding great wisdom, healing, even their teachings paralel each other. they all outline methods and reasonings for finding peace and enhancing the quality of ones life through unity with god, tao, dharma... ect. i know im already on a tangent, but try takeing up some literature from taoism such as the hua hu ching and compare it christian teachings. you'll find identical teachings and ideals for the advancment of human beings on every level.now to get back to the topic of prayer and how much it is like meditation... alright i'll admit there is one difference with praying i've found that when you expect or create an opening for something that seems like a miracle to happen it will happen. but this mostaly happens due to factors. for instance in the original post, the people showing up right after she had prayed the previous night... if you visit a congregation or show ANY intrest in their religion they will go through a lot of effort to bring you into their congregation. if their anything like jehovahs witnesses, they probably have training they go through to make sure they do and say the right things, all this atop the fact that christianity places very strong emphasis on faith. belief in things happening though you dont know how or why create the perfect space for people to 'hear the voice of god', 'see angels' or have mysterious guidance to do or help people. not so say i dont belive in these occurances, but it sadly makes a perfect space for fanatics too. but lets not get into that now...however with meditation, which came from a culture that is much more focused on being self sufficiant. it no surprise to see people doing things like healing others, talk about being your own messiah. because in their experience no one can change who you are but you. and if you can reach a level of wisdom or enlightenment it is because of your own hard work in destroying your ego. in meditation, you'll find teachings that talk about breaking down the veils or in some peoples cases walls that seperate them from divine conciousness. just like with 'praying your heart out' as i used to put it, you eventualy reach a point where you feel at one with yourself, the divine and all the manefestations of the divine around you.which ever method you use to come to a clear and accurate understanding of god, the trick is to be consistant and faithful. without some form of faith in yourself or otherwise you wont create the space needed for spiritual evolution. and without that you'll just get fustrated and give up.

[Vixen_Poetic 0]

It was almost certainly not coincidence. Prayer is the most important contact a person can have with God. It is through our prayer and our faith that we allow Him to bless our lives. Check out the General Epistle of James chapter 1 verses 5 and 6 for a specific answer to your question.

[room2593 0]

I believe in prayer. God exists, and he listens, I'm sure of it.In my life, I've had moments where I would pray and he would help me... It was usually very powerful. But I'm sure there were moments where he was very subtle.There was one time when I was a colporteur and I was really down. I was only 14 and I hadn't sold a book all day. I was about to cry because there was this really mean dude that kicked me off his lawn and I was questioning God's work. Why would I feel called to do something for God that I was horrible at?So I prayed. I asked God to show me whether this was right for me.The next house I went to was a good block away (there were trees inbetween houses) so I had a lot of time to think. The man was out in his driveway. Those are the hardest to approach. I was a gutsy little kid, so I walked over to him. I showed him the first book I had, a cookbook. He bought it for 100 bucks.It was shocking.God really helps when you pray.

[contactskn 2]

I cant say I believe in everything I've read so far in the bible but I have to say something strange happen during the times I did pray recently. First time was a few months ago, I've had some nice church people visit me and give me bible lessons at home. They came like every two weeks or so and read a few paragraphs with me and It was nice. I always get inspired by what I hear from them. They we talked about prayer and they suggested I should try it. Most all know its a way to open up to god and such things.
So I gave it a shot. at the time I was feeling down and unmotivated with my work plus alot of stress in day to day life. that night I prayed and asked him for strength to get by and the next day I was able to get alot done. fixed some programming problems that had been slowing me down for weeks and made progress. At that time I was starting to believe and remeber some wise words from one of my friends 'perseverance' he was right hard work pays off.

The next ocasion was last night I was again not doing too well so I did a prayer before I went to sleep. I asked for help to learn more about him so I could try and make up my mind if I was going to believe or not. The more you know the more you beleive. This morning I got up pretty early took out the rubbsih for collection, had breakfast. I tried to do some work but it was too early so I ended up broswing the internet. I got tired then went to bed again . I was half asleep till almost mid day then I heard people knocking on the door. It was the church people. They didnt visit me in while and it was strange that I prayed and then they came that morning. I was kind of freaked out but still sleepy. My lil brother came in and saw me still in bed so he told him I was asleep. THey left and I was still amazed and trying to figure out what happen. Some may say its a coincidence and I thought about it too but I dont know.

what do you guys think?

Dear friend a good experience shared out by you, first of all thanks for that. Obviously god fearing people knows the importance of praying and I should say what you have experienced is a wholesome truth and nothing but the biggest truth. Thats what I should say is the example of the good effects of good friends which you have experienced. Whenever we from the bottom of our hearts pray to god for anything he will defenitely listen to it and shower his blessings on us.