Feel Foolish with Prayers

[HumblePilgrim]

I have a question. I am feel very self conscious and unworthy when I pray. I feel as if my prayer requests are foolish when it comes to other people’s needs, wants, goals and desires. Many of my prayers do not get answered which also makes me feel even more that my prayers may be silly. I feel as if my prayers may be trivial or selfish or mundane.

For example, I finished my masters degree going on almost three years now and I have been praying for a new job (it would be a new career too) where I can utilize my degree. So far after having three different job interviews I am still in the same job that I was when I first started my degree. I feel my knowledge and skills drifting further and further away. I pray all the time that I find a new job but no answers as yet. God has been silent. Is my request foolish? Should I just be thankful (which I am) for having a job anyway? There are people out there without any work at all so am I being wanton or selfish for asking for more?

This particular prayer request has been causing me the most anxiety about prayer and I feel less and less confident as time goes by that my prayer will be answered. Right now we are having financial problems and we are now cutting everything out to just the essentials (power, food, gas…bye bye netflix and internet) and I want to pray for financial help but that feels so foolish in that many people have nothing to eat.

Could I please get some advice on this? I have gotten to the point where I just don’t want to pray about my own stresses but only on the big problems in the world (poverty, world peace, north korea and so on).

 

[Yehuda_Dion]

Dear one,

Don’t worry about being selfish! Christ, through his death, elevated all those who believe in him to the status of sons and daughters of God. I treat God like I would a personal, loving fther, and this is how everyone everywhere should treat him! In the revelations of Saint Bridget He (Jesus) even says that he is the most generous of all in that he is more prepared to give than anyone is to ask. This means that so long as we have the faith that God listens to our prayers and that we ask rationally for our own good, our prayers stand an extremely good chance of being answered! May God bless you and keep you.

Yehuda

 

[dee_burk]

Your prayers will be answered, eventually, remember prayer answering is on God’s timeline. You have to be patient but continue to pray and ask for your desires.

I have a desire that i prayed for and i know it is “his will” yet, the answer i received was 3 years . So, now i pray that he will give me patience to wait and see what happens in 3 years and for the strength to not become discouraged in that length of time. but i am not giving up, i still pray and remind him that my desire has not changed (although God already knows this ). i remind myself that there is a reason, i need to wait…

 

[R_C]

Many of my prayers do not get answered which also makes me feel even more that my prayers may be silly.

I can assure you that every single prayer you have ever made to Christ has been answered fully and to such a degree that you would be greatly astonished if it were fully revealed to you.

However, given that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, the way in which the prayer is answered may be different from what you expect, that is, it is His will what we want to be done, not ours.

An adult that acts in a childish way feels embarrassed. However, before Christ you must become a child. A child trusts. A child tells everything. World poverty is entrusted to God’s providence, but God is particularly pleased when his children talk to Him about themselves, about their loved ones, about how much they love Him even if they feel sad, or angry, or embarrassed. A child does not mind if the father does not answer, so much as He is by her side, smiling and looking at her…!

Go to Him, talk to Him…He knows all your thoughts, even more than you yourself do, and yet He asks you to pray to him, to let Him know your thoughts…to ask…but remember that the life of the Christian is ultimately a way of the Cross…and any share in the Cross is the greatest blessing and gift Christ can give us, though not many realize or accept this…this anguish for not yet finding a job, and the small sacrifices that you have to do…they save souls! Be patient, surrender yourself to Christ, and do everything as well as you can, without worrying about tomorrow. It is excellent and praiseworthy to be concerned about the future, to make plans…but to worry is useless. Trust Christ, who will sustain you always and everywhere. Thank Christ for all, joy and tears, and offer everything you do as an act of love, yes, even your sorrow, your worries, your feeling of discomfort, your discouragement…tell Him to see how small you are, how frail, how easily discouraged…beg Him to make the soil of your heart more and more fertile, and remind Him that unless He sustains you by His power made perfect, all that is left is your weakness.

And go to Him in the Eucharist as often as you can, possibly daily, for truly we do not need anything else in this life other than Him and a willingness to give ourselves up entirely to Him.

 

[mab23]

Keep praying

Pray for a clear head so that you may have the strength to pursue your career and that God may guide you to do his will with your gifts and skills

perseverance is key, and consistency I know helps at least with me and my prayers

and I will pray for you as well

Ave Maria
gratia plena
Dominus tecum
Benedicta tu in mulieribus
et benedictus Fructus ventris
tui Iesus
sancta Maria
mater Dei
ora pro nobis peccatoribus
nunc et in hora mortis nostrae
Amen

 

[Polycarp1]

Good book - Prayer for Beginners by Peter Kreeft

Listen to peterkreeft.com/audio/32_prayer-beginners/peter-kreeft_prayer-beginners_.mp3