Praying for nothing

[HoldingGodsHand]

When you pray for something you are supposed to believe it can happen, and not doubt. So if I want something to happen but don’t believe it ever will should I not bother to pray for it at all? I’m not talking about praying something impossible, like for money to grow on trees (would be nice though), but like praying for someones heart to change or even for your own heart to change. If we don’t believe in it, should we pray for it? Is praying and hoping just a wish if we don’t believe?

 

[pulsence]

You should still pray because you never know what will be the final result no matter how impossible it might seem at the time. Just because we don’t think someone could ever change their hearts doesn’t mean that God couldn’t. It’s always worth praying for our brothers and sisters. If nothing else it helps you grow in compassion and your relationship with Christ.

 

[edward_george]

Check out C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, particularly the chapter on Christian Prayer wherein he talks about praying the Our Father. He uses the analogy of a very ugly man who wears a mask from birth, hiding his ugliness, and over time his face comes to fit the mask until one day he takes it off and is truly beautiful. This, he says, is how such a prayer works on us–it is very much beyond what we can know we even need (the petition “thy will be done” comes to mind–how many of us can say that and mean it with every fiber of our souls?), and yet the more and more we encounter God in it, the more and more disposed to what we ask we will become.

-ACEGC

 

[fred_conty]

When you pray for something you are supposed to believe it can happen, and not doubt. So if I want something to happen but don’t believe it ever will should I not bother to pray for it at all? I’m not talking about praying something impossible, like for money to grow on trees (would be nice though), but like praying for someones heart to change or even for your own heart to change. If we don’t believe in it, should we pray for it? Is praying and hoping just a wish if we don’t believe?

It looks to me like you prayer is a good one except the last half is missing…“thy will be done”.

That means that the prayer is to be answered in the way that God thinks it is best. It means we know he knows more than we, what is best. It means we accept what his idea of good is over our own.

“Father, let this cup pass from me, but not my will but yours be done.” Jesus.

May God bless and keep you. May God’s face shine on you. May God be kind to you and give you peace.