There whereabouts, hows and ifs of prayer

[AtDawn]

The kind of prayer that someone grown up in a pretty secularised place - like I did - knows about is prayer asking God for something. That never really made sense to me.

I always found it difficult to belive that I can make God litteraly change things just because I ask him. I’ve also found the idea of praying for someone else difficult. So if two people are ni dire need. A is living in the woods, nobody knows about her, while B has plenty of friends. Nobody is praying for A, but B:s friend makes lots of people pray for B - they might, for instance, post on a forum like this asking for prayers, or do it in their local church. Would God really favour B over A? I have always found that unjust, and I still do.

Then there are other kinds of prayer. Some seems very close to meditational practices.

Why do Christians pray? Why do you pray? Has your prayer practise changed over time? If so, how?

 

[Dorothy]

A large part of our prayer time should be praise, thanksgiving, and adoration. We can ask for things and always add…according to Your holy will.

One can meditate on events in our Lord’s life in the Rosary and read a few lines of Scripture and ponder it, and also remember one-line prayers throughout the day as we go about what we should be doing.

 

[pianistclare]

We cannot “make” God do anything. This is a false notion. We can ask God to show mercy and grant a prayer, yes.
You are assuming that if no one prays for a person, that God does not have “his eye on the sparrow” as it were. We are all known to God.
That’s why when we pray we always say “For those who are in immediate need of food, and all who are hungry” for example.
God is perfectly capable of caring for and loving those who have no one to pray for them.
It is our duty to pray for everyone in need, whether it be spiritual, mental, health-wise, financially, whatever.
Prayer is only unjust when we pray for selfish reasons, or we pray for things that are not in accordance with God’s will.
For as many people there are, there are ways to pray. Some favor rote prayers, some favor prayers in Adoration, some devotions, like the rosary or Novenas, some simply sit in the quiet of Church and pray before the tabernacle. But that doesn’t mean that we are limited, nor is God limited to these. You can do meditative prayer on your back porch or in the mountains on a hike. I would begin with basic prayers, and then see what moves me. Prayer is the way we speak to God from our hearts, and the way we LISTEN to God. Many people ask, few remember to listen to the quiet sittings within our souls and our hearts.
A prayer is as simple as “Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
People tend to worry if their “doing it right.” If you prayer brings you peace, if your prayers makes you reflect on how you can be a better friend, mother, employee, child of God, then you are doing something right.
God continually offers His healing hand to us…we must reach out for it in prayer.
Give thanks. All of us are certainly more blessed than many.
God bless you.

 

[Karen107]

There is nothing that God doesn’t know and God is a just God. If things are like you said, then God would understand it the way you understand it. Popularity doesn’t matter to God, He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. So bring all your requests to God for God to hear. I believe prayer changes things and prayer is communication with God. I pray more than I did years ago, but I have always prayed, wondered, loved and experienced God working in my life in big ways and little ways. I’ve experienced healing because of prayer, but I believe that is because I believe all things are possible for God.

 

[mebcb]

You just don’t know who is praying or not, for “The Lady of the Woods.” God may love her very much. We do not know the mind of God, but he knows us…If you have good working knowledge of science, the "Big Ban Theory and the “evolution of man” then you would realize that we are not here by accident, but elegant creature of God. Prayer is a very simple art of adoration, love and fidelity to God, the supreme maker of all that is seen and unseen. Prayer is so that simple that is often hard to grasp and eludes us. When you were child and asked your parents for something did you always get it? Thus it is for the woman in the woods and the “popular young man.” You are trying to secularize a mystery. It just can’’ be done.