What's the point in praying/

[EKnight]

What is the point in praying for God's Will to be done.  It will be done whether or not we pray for it. 

I have a situation going on right now.  I think my son may be relapsing from drug/alcohol recovery.  I know what I want to happen or change but God's will will be done.  So I feel like all I can do is just sit and wait for everything to play out the way it was planned.  I am useless.  I have been praying for God to show me what to do or say but again, if it's His will then He will but if it's not, He won't.  So I am just going about my days waiting and wondering and I really don't like it.

I feel the same way when people here ask for prayers, it's like what's the point, God's will will prevail and no amount of praying will change His plan.

I've read Ray's paper on praying and he said answered prayers are the one's that God already intended to give and unanswered prayers are because it was not God's intention. 

Eileen

[Beloved]

I pray now because I want to pray in Gods Will. The problem with not praying is that you are sitting on the fence. You do not want your son to relapse, because then you and he will have to deal with that and naturally you do not want to have to go through this.

The problem is that many times at first we can not see how your son going into relapse will ever glorify God.  It is only after we go through the tribulations that we can see what was needed and why it was needed. 

It is also hard because we only see one part, perhaps his relapse would also help someone else down the road. Perhaps a conselor, another drug addict or even a law enforcement person "will see the light" because of their encounter with your son.

Another hard part is that we do not understand why he shows mercy to one and not to another....why are some people kept totally blind all of their life.

We pray God' will .....because "Christ in us" would,
We pray..... because God "is" totally Soveregn. 
We pray because Jesus commanded us to and his life here on earth was an example for us...he prayed all the time, even the Holy Spirit is groaning


Rom 8:26  And, in like manner also, the Spirit doth help our weaknesses; for, what we may pray for, as it behoveth us , we have not known, but the Spirit himself doth make intercession for us with groanings unutterable,

(Mat 6:  Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

(Mat 6:9)  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
(Mat 6:10)  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

When I am fearful that my prayer will not be answered I also pray that God will reveal the reason why it wasn't. I also try to imagine how God's answer (yes or no)to my prayer will Glorify Him.

Dealing with a yes is easy, but how many then Thank him with same fervor as the iniital request
Dealing with a NO, is very hard, and even harder to thank him for it. 

beloved

[KristaD]

For a while I felt the same way about prayer and stopped doing it. Now when I pray (just daily prayers) I thank God first off because I know that whatever He does is what's best, then I ask that He increase my faith and strength to get through whatever He has in store for me (or ask the same for someone else who needs it) and that He accomplish His perfect will (which He will anyway but it doesn't hurt to say it). Occasionally I do feel very strongly inspired to pray for a certain outcome and then of course I follow our Lord's example and add "but YOUR will be done" and, you know, on those occasions He DOES exactly what I was inspired to pray for. You can't mess anything up by praying, it IS COMMUNICATION with Him and a relationship has to have communication above all else. Even if you let yourself go and cry and beg for things that aren't His will He will not think any less of you or change His plans and if you ask Him to help you through it you will not be denied. Jesus Himself prayed for God to let the cup pass from Him though that wasn't His Father's will, I don't believe that God expects us to not do the very same thing when we are so hard pressed. When I am struggling my prayers are not well thought out or pretty, they are more like whining and arguing and that doesn't stop Him from speaking to me. It's a marriage that we are in with Him and you can not stop speaking to Him no matter what, it's how we grow closer to Him and mature. Just because you can not make the outcome any different than He planned that doesn't mean that there is nothing for you to say to God about it even if you are just venting.

[jakfr0s]

  Hi Eknight, I was wonderding the same thing so I looked it up in Scriptures and came up with these.

James 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Phil 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Eph 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

Matt 6:6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Matt 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

  Luke 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

  I really hope these Truths help, they did me.

  George D.

[EKnight]

Dealing with a yes is easy, but how many then Thank him with same fervor as the iniital request

When my son was in rehab he was not allowed to call me for three days.  When I first spoke to him he sounded like a different person.  I asked him "how are you feeling?" and his answer was "I feel great.  I have not been this clear-headed in seven years."  He sounded like a different person to me.  As soon as I hung up the phone, I dropped to my knees with tears flowing thanking God for this miracle of healing.  I never thought my son would change. 

Now it looks as though that healing was short lived.  I am not certain of it, but there are enough red flags to take heed/notice.  My son's situation is what brought me to BT and I was so sure that was the reason for it.  Now I guess that was not God's intention. It's not like I would not still be here if my son was the way he was that first day he called me from rehab.  I continued here because I was grateful to God for taking care of him. Before he even went to rehab I told God that he could take my life if he would give my son his soul back.  And I meant it.  Clearly, He understands I want this so I see no need to pray further for it.

I guess right now I am a little angry.

Eileen

[OBrenda]

Good Question Eileen!

It helped me to read through these great responses.  My mother-in-law whom I love dearly is Catholic, (You are Familiar) she gets up at 5:00am every morning and goes through her rosary & prayer book for 3 hours.  And bless her heart when someone she prays for gets well, she tears up and believes it was her prayers that did it.  In a funny way she is taking credit for the results.

Searching for reason why to pray, with a no "free will" belief in prayer, (we know scriptures tell us to pray) I heard a voice answer me back why we are to pray....."Because I want you to learn to love one another"

There are many things in the natural that we can do to show concern for people.  But Prayer for others is doing something Spiritual.  It places and directs our desires torwards their needs and connects us to our Love for them.  That is why he also commands us to pray for our enemies. 

I don't know if this adds any help, but I also learned that even when we are thinking Why this or that about God... That in of itself is a form of prayer.  When we are in a place of being broken, we are unable to pray with organized words or thoughts...sometimes all we can do is surrender...it is then that you need others to pray!

Keeping your whole family in Prayer,
Brenda

[WhoAmI]

I would ask God to give me a true desire to pray. I would have to assume that many of us thought of God before as a genie who's lamp we rubbed and got our wishes. Your communication and letting God know your feelings about things is not about changing his Will. We know Jesus let his self be heard in prayer before he went to the cross, but yet he knew God's Will would be done. God's Will doesn't need changing but we do need to be changed to deal with the trials before us.

Ps 33:22 Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, Just as we hope in You.

[Roy Monis]

Dear Eileen

You are frustrated and downhearted because your prayer has not been answered, can you see into the future? Do you know what lies just ahead of you? No you don't and none of us do, but God does be sure of that. How can you say your prayers are not being answered? Do you know what God has predestined for your son or for you to come to that? Be assured that the result bad or good in our carnal sight will be GOOD in God's sight. When God predestines something for us it is for a purpose and the end result for us will be good. "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified." (Rom.8.28-30).

Don't give up on prayer it is the most powerful weapon in the world "And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, How is it that we could not cast it out? And he said unto them, This kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer."  (Mark 9:28,29).

Here were apostles who could bring down fire from heaven, "And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven, and consume them? But he turned, and rebuked them. And they went to another village..." (Luke 9:54-56). But they were unable to drive out a demon. So the power of prayer is mightier than calling down fire from heaven by faith.

Please do not underestimate God's predestined will because you do not know if your son's recovery is included in it or not. Why not pray for his complete recovery to be a part of His predestined will instead and leave it at that. Very difficult but it does show complete confidence in a loving and merciful God because that is what He demands complete trust and submission to His Sovereign Will.

                        So child of God, listen, there will be an end,
                              Just trust Him for His Word is true,
                        Be patient and wait, for in His own good time
                            He'll measure.and bring you through.

God bless you sister and your son in our joint walk in Christ. 

Love in Christ Jesus.

Roy UK     

[KristaD]

That was beautiful Roy.
Eileen it is perfectly ok to be angry with God. I don't mean that you are right in your anger, but that HE UNDERSTANDS and is using it! He brought you to this place where you would be angry with Him and He has a purpose for it for your spiritual growth. I know it's hard to pray when we only want to accept one outcome but if you stop talking to Him it will only get worse. Scream at Him if you want to, tell Him off, question Him and get it all out. He knows what your heart is feeling about it so you may as well say it, sometimes He just needs us to open up and be honest with Him and ourselves so that he can show us where our problem is and He can fix it. I know that when I have been in that place of heated conversation with God something always came out that I didn't realize was there and then He worked on that in me. Praying isn't about getting YOUR will done, it's about a relationship with Him and it requires honesty and openness just like any other relationship.
I do not know His will for your son, but I do know that He has a reason for whatever He is doing. I didn't straighten up the first time I tried to get off drugs either. He needs to take Him through whatever He has to in order to ultimately change his heart. Know that THAT is His ultimate purpose, your son's salvation.