Ask Whatever You Will, and It Shall Be Done for You. Really?

[BobCatholic]

Why ask then?

Because that’s the only way to know for most prayers.

It happens? Answer is yes.
It doesn’t happen? Answer is no.

Unless you have a better way of getting God to actually talk to you.

 

[JamalChristophr]

Because that’s the only way to know for most prayers.

It happens? Answer is yes.
It doesn’t happen? Answer is no.

Unless you have a better way of getting God to actually talk to you.

But what is the time frame?

A. 24 Hours.
B. 7 days.
C. 3 months.
D. 1 year.
E. More than 1 year?

 

[BobCatholic]

Your son is with you. He has not been taken from you. Therefore, God has not clearly said “No.”

If God takes him from me, he is likely to go to heaven, and there he will be healed. The answer is “yes, but too late now!!!”

If God takes him from me, and whoops the elevator goes the other direction, he’ll never be healed. Answer is “no!”

That means everything else is still on the table. You don’t know God’s will, and by saying that since He didn’t say “Yes” or “Wait” such that you could interpret, He must have said “No,” you are still putting words into God’s mouth.

Then how am I supposed to get an answer from God when he doesn’t want to give me an answer?

Praying a ton of prayers that God says “no” to is a waste and helps nobody.

God has provided you with knowledge. He has given you knowledge of Him, through His son. He has told you of His ever-lasting love, of His limitless mercy, of His grace, and of His compassion.

There’s also another message you’re missing.
Since my son cannot relate to me this means that either:

• This is a sign of how God relates to me. This means that God has rejected me. Nothing I can do will change that, so game over. Despair time.
  OR
• This is a sign of how I relate to God. Since God has not healed me, I am unable to relate to God. Nothing I can do will change that, so game over. Despair time.

There is a message. And it cannot be a positive one since…I am getting the silent treatment from God.

It is one thing to take care of 100% of spiritual punishments like Jesus did. It is another to ignore the temporal punishments, sending the message that I’m on my own until somehow I survive until I die.

 

[BobCatholic]

But what is the time frame?

A. 24 Hours.
B. 7 days.
C. 3 months.
D. 1 year.
E. More than 1 year?

I think 8 years is more than enough time.

Unless you’re arguing for a longer time frame (200 years)? I’ll be dead by then.

 

[JamalChristophr]

I think 8 years is more than enough time.

Unless you’re arguing for a longer time frame (200 years)? I’ll be dead by then.

Eight years is a very long time, I agree.

But it still reminds me of Elizabeth and Zechariah and Abraham and Sara who waited decades and decades.

I apologize, but I hadn’t read everything posted so I’m not sure exactly what you said regarding your boy.

Some illnesses and diseases are more probable than other things as regards to healings, as I’m sure you well know. Defects are less likely to be altered except by miraculous intervention.

 

[BobCatholic]

Eight years is a very long time, I agree.

But it still reminds me of Elizabeth and Zechariah and Abraham and Sara who waited decades and decades.

In both cases, God actually talked to them. Their example is in stark contrast to mine, where God is silent.

I apologize, but I hadn’t read everything posted so I’m not sure exactly what you said regarding your boy.

Some illnesses and diseases are more probable than other things as regards to healings, as I’m sure you well know. Defects are less likely to be altered except by miraculous intervention.

My son has a mental disease, and cannot relate to me. I cannot connect to my son, no matter what I do.

 

[JamalChristophr]

Well, I do know that Autism, for example, does not go away. And it varies in degrees. Some people make small improvements, but no one is ever cured from it. I’m just using autism as an example.

 

[casslean]

I think 8 years is more than enough time.

Unless you’re arguing for a longer time frame (200 years)? I’ll be dead by then.

It took over ten years of God working to bring me to Him; if He had given up after eight years, I would certainly be much the worse for it.

Can I ask another question? What do you gain by deciding (without any evidence one way or another) that your prayers will not be answered? A life with only scant hope is still a life with hope. You still have something, and God would never deny you that gift of hoping for His miraculous intervention, even if it is not His will.

If I have to choose to believe in a just, merciful, loving God who simply has a different plan for me than the one I want, and one who is punishing me for reasons I can’t understand and for which I can do nothing, I’m going to choose the former. You’re choosing the latter, and there is nothing - nothing - in what we know of God to support your interpretation. God didn’t command people to marry early, so why would he punish you for marrying late? We know He wants to bring all of us to Him, so why would He want to deny you a relationship with Himself? Even when we act to sever our ability to reach his grace, he has given us the means to reach Him again through the beauty of the sacrament of Reconciliation? Why would he do all that - and then arbitrarily decide not to have a relationship with you?

 

[casslean]

There’s also another message you’re missing.
Since my son cannot relate to me this means that either:

• This is a sign of how God relates to me. This means that God has rejected me. Nothing I can do will change that, so game over. Despair time.
  OR
• This is a sign of how I relate to God. Since God has not healed me, I am unable to relate to God. Nothing I can do will change that, so game over. Despair time.

There is a message. And it cannot be a positive one since…I am getting the silent treatment from God.

It is one thing to take care of 100% of spiritual punishments like Jesus did. It is another to ignore the temporal punishments, sending the message that I’m on my own until somehow I survive until I die.

I don’t believe you are getting the silent treatment from God. I believe you are so busy trying to tell God what He is telling you, you can’t hear what He is trying to say.

Do you think that the only time God allows suffering to happen it is because he has turned away from those in pain? That’s the dichotomy you have created - if God lets me suffer and doesn’t stop it when I ask, God does not love me. We know that isn’t true. He allowed His own son to suffer because it would provide so much good to the whole world.

I am so sorry you are feeling so far from God right now, but I do know He is still there with you, and that He does love you. I know that He feels your pain and your suffering, and I know that if you ask Him for the strength to get you through, even if you have to ask every day, He will help you.

 

[BobCatholic]

It took over ten years of God working to bring me to Him; if He had given up after eight years, I would certainly be much the worse for it.

You’re blessed.

I’m not.

Can I ask another question? What do you gain by deciding (without any evidence one way or another) that your prayers will not be answered?

Nothing. And I will gain nothing by continuing to pray to heal my son’s mental disease, rather it will be a waste of time.

A life with only scant hope is still a life with hope. You still have something, and God would never deny you that gift of hoping for His miraculous intervention, even if it is not His will.

He has denied me all hope.

If I have to choose to believe in a just, merciful, loving God who simply has a different plan for me than the one I want, and one who is punishing me for reasons I can’t understand and for which I can do nothing, I’m going to choose the former.

I have to believe that God is the ultimate reality, and He does not contradict reality because he’d be contradicting himself.

So people are saying “he is chasing after everyone so he can have a relationship with them.” He’s not doing that to me. So clearly either that is flat out wrong or I’m an exception.

You’re choosing the latter, and there is nothing - nothing - in what we know of God to support your interpretation.

Except my experience.

God didn’t command people to marry early, so why would he punish you for marrying late?

Because the chance babies having this mental disease increase if the parents are after age 35.

We know He wants to bring all of us to Him, so why would He want to deny you a relationship with Himself?

Then why doesn’t he talk to me?

I read about the lives of the saints and long before they were santified, God would be talking to them. You know, actual conversations!!!

To me, prayer is a monologue. So I now only pray what I think will benefit others, since prayer is not meant to benefit me.

 

[JamalChristophr]

Bob, would you mind telling us specifically what your boy has? If you’d rather not, it’s fine.

 

[BobCatholic]

I don’t believe you are getting the silent treatment from God.

Then you are wrong.

I believe you are so busy trying to tell God what He is telling you, you can’t hear what He is trying to say.

I’m asking God to talk to me. Result: silent treatment.

Do you think that the only time God allows suffering to happen it is because he has turned away from those in pain?

No. Those going through the Dark Night are the exception to that. During the Dark Night, one goes through horrendous pain, and after wards is closer to God.

In order for the Dark Night to happen, one has to have have spiritual consolations from God before the Dark Night. During this beautiful time, God is sensed by the senses. One KNOWS God is near. It is a beautiful mystical experience.

I never had that in my life.

So clearly, this is not a Dark Night. Clearly, this is God abandoning me for real.
I am such a failure, such an unholy person, he has said “go your own way” and left me.

[qutoe] That’s the dichotomy you have created - if God lets me suffer and doesn’t stop it when I ask, God does not love me.

God does not love me because he doesn’t talk to me.

God is without emotion. God does not understand.