Does prayer really work?

[benjammin]

Okay, so lately i’ve been wondering if prayer works. I was having a discussion with a friend and he said we should pray abortion ends. While I wholeheartedly agree, I feel like when people say this they are taking the easy way out. Rather than pray, we should fight to protect our rights and defend the unborn. Do things like commit civil disobedience and show that we aren’t going to take this junk anymore. Prayer just seems lazy.
Just as an example, what if we had just prayed instead of going to fight in World War 2. Odds are we’d be speaking German, and most of us wouldn’t be here. I just get tired of people talking about the power of prayer when we should be more active in getting our viewpoints across. Otherwise we may just end up being lost as a society, and I don’t think God wants that.

 

[Metropolis]

Have you heard of the saying, “Pray like it all depends on God, and live like it all depends on you,”? Many times I God uses us to answer prayers and/or get things done in this Earth. We need to pray, but that doesn’t excuse us of our duty to take action to better this world.

 

[IrishRush]

I would be willing to bet that in World War II there was a lot of praying done before we joined the war.
I’m also willing to be that America joining the war was the answer to a lot of prayers.
Prayer isn’t laziness. Prayer is asking God for what we need (for the example you used, anyway). And sometimes the response from God is to have some person/people to act, sometimes the response is not so obvious.
But prayer is never about lazy.
I would say that acting without praying is irresponsible though. Especially in the example you used.

 

[Catholic80]

Okay, so lately i’ve been wondering if prayer works. I was having a discussion with a friend and he said we should pray abortion ends. While I wholeheartedly agree, I feel like when people say this they are taking the easy way out. Rather than pray, we should fight to protect our rights and defend the unborn. Do things like commit civil disobedience and show that we aren’t going to take this junk anymore. Prayer just seems lazy.
Just as an example, what if we had just prayed instead of going to fight in World War 2. Odds are we’d be speaking German, and most of us wouldn’t be here. I just get tired of people talking about the power of prayer when we should be more active in getting our viewpoints across. Otherwise we may just end up being lost as a society, and I don’t think God wants that.

“Ora ET labora” Work AND pray!

 

[pure_angel]

Prayers definitely work. I prayed that my friend would stay away from drunkards and say no to them. The next time I saw her she was saying ‘no’ and staying away from those bad influences.

Working to end something will also help.

Work + Pray = Things will get done faster

 

[bzkoss236]

I prayed for my fiancee long before I met her (years). She fits all the descriptions I prayed for and more so than I imagined at the time. It doesn’t end there, I’ve had numerous prayers answered, most not necessarily in the way I wanted or would have preferred.

I do agree that you can’t just pray and sit back and expect everything to happen the way you want and without you lifting a finger. Work + Prayer. She wouldn’t be my fiancee if I hadn’t asked her out in the first place.