What is the point in prayer?

[Mummsie]

Methos and OP,

Understandably, we are often dragged down by worldly needs and wants. As mentioned previously, this could be your time for submitting your life to God. Trust that He will provide what is necessary for you. Perhaps, as you have more time on your hands, you can commit to additional prayer or meditation to learn God’s will for you. Or volunteer to help those less fortunate than you (they’re out there)

“When you get lemons, make lemonade”

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me…
the Serenity to Accept the things I cannot change
the Courage to Change the things I can, and
the Wisdom to Know the difference.

God Bless You

 

[fred_conty]

Yeah, who needs a job when the sink is dripping, the drain is clogged, the car won’t start and the cupboard’s bare? No worries, be happy.

Being happy is better than being bitter and hateful. That is no solution. Nor is it effective to be demanding as well. The prayer that needs to be said is not being prayed. Once it is prayed then the other requests will be answered in a satisfactory way. But pride and arrogance will not be answered, the psalms tell us this much. A bad prayer is no prayer at all. A person has to lighten up their attitude irregardless of the conditions, for no one will help anyone when they are arrogant. That is charity 101.

“I know the sun is shinning even when it isn’t shinning.” Christian hymn

 

[Lost_Sheep]

If God granted your request, would that bring you closer to Him?

Yes. At least I would know He is listening.

Do we measure God’s love for us by how much He grants our requests?

I do.

And if we do, does it manifest a greater love for ourselves than for God?

I don’t know. God has yet to answer a prayer for me. And just so I’m being clear, if a prayer has not been answered “my way” then as far as I am concerned it has not been answered. Again, “ask and you shall receive.”

 

[ynotzap]

Yes. At least I would know He is listening.

God is Omniscient, He knows, and listening, do you doubt?
Lost Sheep:

I do.

Do you see anything possibly wrong with this answer?

 

[ynotzap]

I don’t know. God has yet to answer a prayer for me. And just so I’m being clear, if a prayer has not been answered “my way” then as far as I am concerned it has not been answered. Again, “ask and you shall receive.”

I thought one should approach God in a humble, loving way like Christ who said “If this Chalice can not pass but that I drink of it, then not My will, but Thy will be done.” Christ’s love for His Father and for us remained constant even when His Father did not remove the Chalice of suffering. It was unconditional. Is our love unconditional for God, should it be? Do we love the gift more than the Giver? If we do then we love ourselves more than God.

 

[Methos]

Methos and OP,

Understandably, we are often dragged down by worldly needs and wants. As mentioned previously, this could be your time for submitting your life to God. Trust that He will provide what is necessary for you. Perhaps, as you have more time on your hands, you can commit to additional prayer or meditation to learn God’s will for you. Or volunteer to help those less fortunate than you (they’re out there)

I wouldn’t know His will unless he put up a flashing neon sign. I’m bad at reading people as it is, let alone Him.

Also, I’m getting tired of helping people as when I have a problem(s), no one’s there. It’s makes my policy of a favor for a favor justified.

 

[Mummsie]

Methos,

When I stopped asking for specific solutions to my issues, God solved my problems. Not necessarily the way I wanted, but solved none the less. And it wasn’t a neon sign, but a 2x4 to my head (I’m apparently a proud slow learner . Amazingly, His solution addressed many other issues and touched many other lives. I was thinking too small. He sees the whole picture.

Praying the Holy Spirit will show you His way. (Keep your eyes open

God Bless you.

 

[7_Sorrows]

To me the point of prayer is to keep the line of communication open between you and God. It is a process. There are days I don’t have a lot of energy and I can manage only a simple prayer. There are other days I can do my scripture readings and pray the Rosary and there are my weekly hours at Adoration that I just turn myself over to God and just sit there and feel His Presence and talk to him. I am not expecting an answer right away, but it helps me get by day by day, week by week.

 

[hazcompat]

Crossing the Threshold of Hope

Pope Saint John Paul II

Man is the priest of all creation; he speaks in its name, but only insofar as he is guided by the Spirit. In order to understand profoundly the meaning of prayer, one should meditate for a long time on the following passage from the Letter to the Romans: “For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
For in hope we were saved” (Rom 8:19-24). And here again we come across the apostle’s words: “The Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groaning’s” (cf. Rom 8:26).

In prayer, then, the true protagonist is God. The protagonist is Christ, who constantly frees creation from slavery to corruption and leads it toward liberty, for the glory of the children of God. The protagonist is the Holy Spirit, who “comes to the aid of our weakness.” We begin to pray, believing that it is our own initiative that compels us to do so. Instead, we learn that it is always God’s initiative within us, just as Saint Paul has written. This initiative restores in us our true humanity; it restores in us our unique dignity. Yes, we are brought into the higher dignity of the children of God,the children of God who are the hope of all creation.

Peace

 

[yorkshiregirl]

Thank you so much for all the replies.

Firstly of course I have had joy in my life but I was talking more about joy from feeling that God loves me rather than ‘secular’ joy. And as for peace - I rarely feel secular peace either. I’m the person who worries that whether the sun is going to come up tomorrow so it’s almost impossible to feel peace. I know I should ‘let go and let God’ but when you have spent most of your life worrying about things and people - I didn’t have a particularly peaceful childhood and had lots of worries from a young age and that’s a hard habit to get out of.

I certainly don’t think God is a genie to grant my every wish but my prayers are not for me, I pray for people to get better, for my husband to be promoted because it will make him feel more worthwhile (I love him whatever), for my children to do well at school because it’s a hard world out there (again I love them however well they do). I didn’t think these were particularly ‘unworthy’ requests.

I too am bad at reading what God wants me to do. I look for signs but seriously they would have to be pretty obvious for me to get the hint. If God doesn’t occasionally answers my prayers - as I’ve asked - how will I know He is listening?! I know He sees the bigger picture but I’m just a little human and I need some help in understanding His vision for me!

Having said all that I do like the idea of the ‘chatty’ prayer. I have tried Adoration - I’m sorry I just sit there thinking what am I supposed to be doing? I bought myself a copy of the Shorter Daily Prayer and got up early every day for ages to say the morning prayer. I said the evening prayer and said compline from my beautiful Benedictine breviary. After a while I just felt that I was ‘going through the motions’ and God would think me a hypocrite and so I stopped. But I’m absolutely going to try to just tell Him what’s going on with me every day - even though He obviously already knows!

Thanks everyone for your replies - it’s comforting to know I’m not the only one with these doubts and hiccups in their prayer lives. Feel better than I did this time last week

 

[ynotzap]

Yorkshiregirl: What you ask is perfectly normal and loving because you ask for others. I suggest something that I suggested to Lost Sheep some time back and I don’t think he puts much reliance on what I suggested. A humble childlike approach to God (Jesus) asking for an encounter with Him and praying for it in earnest can make all the difference in the world from your present spiritual status. It’s happened to me, and it happened to my friend, a mother of four who had cancer, also I know of others who had the same experience. I said that love is the greatest motivator, and when you know Jesus is answering your prayers, He is manifesting His love for you, not that He has not loved you all along. Ask as your own spirit directs you. To help I include this little prayer:

Holy Father, Creator, I acknowledge my total dependence upon you. You love me through no merit of my own because you are love itself. I thank you for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, to bring me back to You. I am sorry for all my offenses. I ask You in the Name of Jesus to release Your Spirit in me. Inflame me with Faith, Hope, and Love and all the virtues. Grant me your Holy Joy and peace that the world can not give. Heal me according to your will, and expel from me all the is anti-Christ. Glorify Jesus in me. I worship You in union with Mary,all the Angels and Saints now and forever. Also, expect the answer from Him, and always ask in the Holy Name of Jesus. How strong is your Faith?

 

[Methos]

A humble childlike approach to God (Jesus) asking for an encounter with Him and praying for it in earnest can make all the difference in the world from your present spiritual status.

OK, I’ve always heard that, but now I want to know what it means. As a child, I was scared. I was abused at home and bullied at school, unable to defend myself. Being able to defend myself is one of the handful of times I remember being confident, which is extremely rare. So, when people say to be child-like, that is the last thing I want to be. Yet, I’m supposed mature in my faith, etc. So, I’m a prodigious child? It seems like contradictory demands.

 

[ynotzap]

OK, I’ve always heard that, but now I want to know what it means. As a child, I was scared. I was abused at home and bullied at school, unable to defend myself. Being able to defend myself is one of the handful of times I remember being confident, which is extremely rare. So, when people say to be child-like, that is the last thing I want to be. Yet, I’m supposed mature in my faith, etc. So, I’m a prodigious child? It seems like contradictory demands.

To be child-like is to trust in God and His love for you, as a child puts it’s hands in the hands of it’s father who leads it away from danger, and protects it from harm. Child-like is not childish, foolishness. It is not weakness, it takes courage to admit one’s helplessness against the negative forces in the world. It takes humility to open one’s self up before God and ask for help, after all who is self-sufficient. Child-like is simplicity, innocence The negative forces in the world can produce fear, which is natural, but too much fear is not. Human tend to flee the fear, or fight it. Satan is a reality which I know for a fact. He works through the unkindness of people, theirs, and our ignorance, he works through human passions, hatred, sensuality, pride, greed, and injustice to name some. Expose one to fear, insecurity, and to a lack of love can produce an anxious, and even a harden, skeptical individual. By understanding the negative forces that exert their influence on people and directing one’s anger not to the people affected but to the source is a good way of venting, and to do something about it is even better. Jesus came to redeem us from these negative forces, because we are helpless against them, because they are spirits. These spirits prompt the bully to hurt people, cause others to be thoughtless and uncharitable, the proud to lord it over people, to incite passions, to even kill, and lie. An encounter with Jesus will redeem us from these forces, and fill us with the Spirit of God, and with His Spirit we can reverse the situation, and cause these spirits much humbling and failure. Jesus said “If we are not like a child, we will not enter the kingdom of Heaven” They have faith, and trust in those that love them. We become spiritual warriors.