Which Prayers Are Answered?

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I have been praying, lighting candles and going out at night to pray for about two months for one of my grand daughters. I am praying for something she Can Do but she is not doing it.

I have asked Our Lady to pray for her. I have aske Pur Lord Jesus to help her. I asked the Holy Spirit and God the Father also. And still it seems there is no answer to my prayers.

If some of you have had prayers answered, tell me please how you prayed. I do not think the method of prayer is important. But please tell me what you know. Thanks.
 
Truth be known, Exporter, I have been praying for my family for so many years I’m afraid to reveal it, lest you be further discouraged.

What I believe God showed me, though, a long time ago, was that each person has their own timetable where they “germinate.” In gardener’s language, when we look at a packet of seeds, it tells us how long it takes for the seed to “germinate” and begin to grow. That is very important, for some seeds, like the sweet pea, take six months to pop, whereas marigolds and zinnias only take five days.

Why is that important? If we become discouraged that some take too long, and withhold water, they will never germinate. So it’s important to keep applying the water of our prayers. One day, the seed will open up. I think my sweet pea is taking much longer than I expected <groan!>.

Another example I learned in prayer was that we keep steadily putting our prayers in the bank and the amount keeps accumulating. One day, the person for whom we prayed may draw out a huge sum all at once – a conversion!

Although the family members have not converted YET, I have seen beautiful changes in personality and charity that helps me know that God keeps them from evil, though they do not recognize Him or know Him at this time. One person had a severe drinking problem and has been sober now for over five years - I forget how long. Little glimmers of hope, Exporter, that keep me going, huh?

Sometimes I pray for people and they are like the marigold - instant results. I guess it all depends upon the person’s free will, which we know God will not override in any way. Trust that your prayers are probably keeping her from a worse situation, even though she is not where you would like to see her.

:love: Carole
 
Just another quick thought after I signed off. The holier we become ourselves, the more effective will be our prayers, keeping in mind the above sanction about free will.

Jn. 17:19, “And for THEM, I sanctify MYSELF, that THEY also may be sanctified in Truth.”
 
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Exporter:
I have been praying, lighting candles and I am going out at night to pray for about two months for one of my grand daughters. I am praying for something she Can Do but she is not doing it.

I have asked Our Lady to pray for her. I have asked Our Lord Jesus to help her. I asked the Holy Spirit and I asked God the Father also. And still it seems there is no answer to my prayers.
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Exporter, thank you for being a prayer warrior for your grand daughters. :clapping:

I had to learn the hard way to look at the fruit being produced from my own prayer intentions. How? Well, I would evaluate how I would discuss the situation to someone else. Would my conversation lead that other individual closer to God or father away? I quickly learned my conversations were full of pride, selfishness, hopelessness, mistrust, negativity and even lies.
  • pride - I did this, I did that
  • selfishness - only praying for my loved ones
  • hopelessness - the situation will never change
  • mistrust - God is not listening
  • negativity - no, not, never
  • lies - God does not answer my prayers
I noticed that I spent my time trying to get from God what I wanted and not what He wanted. I held on so tightly to my narrowly defined situation that I was blocking the God’s grace from flowing freely. Ouch! It was like “look what I am doing to convert my family.” I did not take this well. Even though I was doing good deeds my motives kept me on the other side of the fence with no good fruit.

What to do?

I needed a change of heart. I quit praying for my loved one.

Yes, I said I quit praying for my loved ones. Let me explain. I actually didn’t quite praying for my loved ones, God showed me to change my prayer to a prayer of trust. Anytime I felt those negative (fruitless) emotions I surrendered that prayer (persons) to Our Lord. I gave my burden to Jesus.

ex. “Jesus I see I am worried about this person, I place that worry and all of my concerns to You. You take them. I don’t want them.” I kept my focus on Jesus and not the petition.

I also realized my prayer intentions were focussed only on my loved ones. Therefore, I changed my intentions to include everybody with that particular need. Instead of mentioning my loved ones, I adopted someone else in the same situation. This really helped my anxiety. I entrusted my family and their needs to God, not forgetting Our Mother. My amount of prayer time actually grew because I was receiving more fruit. My petitions grew in scope, but were not the focus of my prayer. My focus was praising, thanking, loving, adoring and contemplating God.

Now I understand what St. Pio meant when he said, "Pray, hope and don’t worry."

I hope I was not harsh. Please ask questions to help clarify my mess.

God :blessyou:
 
Believe it or not, but all prayers are answered. But sometimes the answer is not the one we hoped to receive and other times the answer is long time in coming. Did not St.Monica pray nearly 40 years for St.Augustine’s conversion. Not only was he converted but he became a strong defender of the faith and a doctor of the church.
Never stop praying! Never!
 
Exporter-

It’s so wonderful and loving for you to care so much about your grandaughter. What a wonderful man you must be. God sees that , and he will watch out for her. I think it’s really wonderful that you keep praying for her, don’t stop- but just remember God knows whats best for her more than we do. So if your prayer goes unanswered, don’t take it as he didn’ t care or hear you.

What we want for ourselves and others is not always the same as what God wants for us. We need to give our prayers to God, with the intention of His Will being done. Because no matter how good our intentions for our prayers might be, we will never be able to know the best thing for someone the way that God does.

One prayer that I think might be something to try is the Novena. But have in your heart God’s will, not yours.

God Bless.
 
Prayers of petition are strengthened by **Fasting **and Charitable Works.
 
Recently I got discouraged at God’s “no” or “not now” answer to several of my prayer intentions. God led me to realize that I was being very selfish - as if I know the answer to everyone’s troubles! So now instead of gimme this and gimme that - I just tell Our Lord that he knows the desires of my heart. I thank Him that He is in charge of my life. He knows what I desire for myself and for those I pray for, but more importantly, He knows what we need in order to grow closer to Him. God has a wonderful plan for all of us. I place all my concerns and troubles and prayer requests in His Sacred Heart and in the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And then I just try to do my part in His plan. I feel much more at peace now.
 
i am convinced that all prayers are answered…

i believe it was St Augustine’s mother who prayed for years and years before her son’s conversion…

yep, i believe they are always answered, just sometimes we are only satisfied with the answer when it’s the answer WE want…
i could be wrong…
 
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LoneRanger:
i am convinced that all prayers are answered…

i believe it was St Augustine’s mother who prayed for years and years before her son’s conversion…

yep, i believe they are always answered, just sometimes we are only satisfied with the answer when it’s the answer WE want…
i could be wrong…
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He was converted and she became a saint from all that praying.👍
 
Stbruno is right! All prayers are answered!

But remember - it is God’s will not ours. Only God knows the master plan for all of us. Your prayers are helping, and I firmly believe, (and the Bible says) that if it appears something is not working out or our prayers are not being answered, it is because we do not yet understand God’s will. Maybe adding some prayers to ask God to reveal His plan to you would also help.
 
Just wanted to post an interesting thing that happened to me with prayer some 25 years ago.

A friend of mine was in a severe car crash, his car was run off the road, and ended up rolling down a small hill. He was in a coma and was placed in a major hospital about 70 miles away. I wish that I could remember how long he was in the coma, I want to think that it was nearly one month.

We (friends, his family) stormed heaven with prayer, asking God to heal him. No improvement seemed to happen. One evening, I was praying, and felt worn out, as if I was tired of asking for my friend’s healing. I realized (the Holy Spirit working here?) that I was going about it all wrong. I was asking God for what *I *wanted, and was easily over looking God’s will in this matter. I prayed that God do it His way, and I put Jim in God’s hands, knowing that God’s will might not mean a healing.

The next day, my friend’s mother called me to tell me that Jim emerged from the coma. She told me that she had been going about her prayer, leaving God’s will out of the matter, asking for what she wanted. She mentioned that she was given the inspiration (the Holy Spirit again?) that she was not allowing God’s will to be a part of the total picture. She said that she then put her son in God’s hands. I asked her what time Jim came out of his coma…it was the same time that she and I both prayed “Your will be done.”

25 years later, Jim is strong and healthy.

I know that it all sounds hokey, but it was a powerful lesson for me (and one that I don’t always follow), that while I can ask God to take care of my needs and desires, “Your will be done” has truly got to be a part of my motivation.

Just wanted to share that with you.

Please know that God is hearing and answering your prayer.

Joe
 
Wow, Joysong and Johnq could/should be spiritual directors.

Very good responses from all. I can surely apply these wise answers to my prayer.

I have also found that-I know this sounds hokey-that when I am most worried about what my children are up to, and I sooo want to pray for what I want or expect from them, I will ask God to give me the strength to accept that they are HIS not mine. Very hard for a mom to do-or grandpa, huh? Then I beg my angel and theirs to protect them from harm.

Most of the time when my prayers are answered, I’m too dumb to realize that it already happened. It just wasn’t what I told God to do. Silly me. I guess that is why he needs the rod and staff to get the dumbest sheep inside the fold. Gentle, loving little WHACK.

Maybe you could try not asking for anything, just listening. As someone else said, the Holy Spirit sometimes is trying to get in. That was an awesome story too.

Hang in there. Paula
 
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Exporter:
I have been praying, lighting candles and going out at night to pray for about two months for one of my grand daughters. I am praying for something she Can Do but she is not doing it.

.
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well for one thing, prayers are not answered which attempt to dictate what course of action God should take or which ask God to violate the free will of another person.

Prayers are not non-negitiable demands. At the heart of all prayer must be abandonment and conformation to the will of God, whether or not we are ever shown fully what that is. Prayer is not conforming God or people to our own wills.
 
JohnQ,

I had to read your post more than once to start to understand it. Then after breaking it down I see that you have had much experience in the prayer life. You know more than you said!

You said you were “redirected” in the way you were prayeing. Yesterday at morning Mass I asked God the Father to teach me how to pray. This morning at Mass, I was before Our Lady and all of a sudden I got the “message” that I shouldn’t pray for myself, but rather to pray for grand daughter so she would be happy after this is over. Now that is a different prayer - as you said I was Not to be Pridefull and ask for results. I am a white-haired man, but I am still learning.

Thank You JohnQ for the instruction and the wonderful post. I learned something from you.
 
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