Why Do We Pray and Thank God if We are the Ones Doing Everything, and He will just do what he wants anyway?

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I have been asking God for years for him to tell me what he wants me to do with my life. I get nothing in response. I believe in God, more than anyone else that I know. I KNOW he is there. Which means that I also KNOW that he simply ignores my 1000 times asking him to tell me what to do with my life. He stays silent when I ask what he wants me to do.

Now I am wondering why I even thank him for anything at all. He doesn’t work to earn the money. He doesn’t spend his money buying the groceries. He doesn’t cook them. I do. He didn’t fix my car, me and my brother did. I asked for him to keep it from breaking, he obviously said no. So why do I even waste my time praying at all? Why do I thank him for what I and others are doing. He, ignores me. He says no. He doesn’t do a thing for me. Instead, I do it, or other people help me. I thank them, not God anymore.

Why bother praying if he is going to most likely say no anyway? He says to be like the birds who don’t worry. Well let me tell you about the birds. The birds steal. The birds are absolutely brutal and murder each other. Birds will murder other birds children to get what they want. Birds also do nothing but work for themselves, never helping anyone else.

So it sounds like what I really need to do is stop wasting my time praying. Stop wasting my time thanking God for what I get done. And as well do nothing but work my butt off trying to get money. Because birds don’t pray. Birds don’t give. Birds just work all day long. If we are to be like the birds then what we should do is just work our butts off for money and forget the rest.
 
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It is written, "The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory belongs to ‘I AM’ [the LORD].
The LORD delivered Israel from Egypt, but Moses delivered Israel from Egypt.
The Father sent his Son into the world, but Mary had a baby boy.

God does all he does, absolutely everything, in CO-OPERATION of knowing, simultaneously with a created being and God himself knowing themselves (God and Creature) working together. You simply do not know yourself as a simultaneous operator with your ‘I AM’ [the LORD your God]. You think all things are only done by a single being, either by yourself (my but you are proud of yourself) or by God (but since he never temporally performs alone, you see nothing). If you understood, as Catholics, that God ALWAYS works in CO-OPERATION with a creature, be it man or angel, then you would see that you also are doing NOTHING BY YOURSELF, whether buying and cooking food or earning money.
You would be dead having nothing if Victory did not belong to the LORD.
 
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Hey friend. So I think I’m sensing frustration?
I sometimes felt that God wasn’t listening to me in the past. Later on I found that He was completely listening to me, it’s just that I needed to change my focus, or perhaps seek a new direction. And I’m really glad, I might have been on a bad path. So,etimes I had to listen more.

I think we often think we focus on temporal things, are we focused on our interactions and relationships? On living a Godly life? Not saying your not btw. But is our focus in the right place?

Try not to lose hope mate, sometimes the greatest places I’ve grown has been during when God seemed farther away, or when the answer was a short term no.
 
RickAllenMedia said:
Birds just work all day long. If we are to be like the birds then what we should do is just work our butts off for money and forget the rest.
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A robin didn’t create a worm, he just looks and waits and suddenly it pops out of the ground for him as a meal provided for free.
A crow does not work to create ‘road-kill’’; he flies about and suddenly after a car drove by there are both a dead squirrel and a discarded half cheeseburger popped in front of him for free.
I planted my garden as a servant of the LORD and why? The birds are plucking the sunflower seeds from the ripe blossom without having tilled the ground, planted the sunflower, nor providing sun and rain, nor keeping the bunnies from eating the sprout.

Birds don’t work at all for food; if they work at all it is after they have been fed and clothed as a gift - then they work bringing food to their young and training their young to fly - giving a gift of life - they become servants, messengers of the LORD to me and their offspring.
 
I think that we have all been there, thinking that GOD did not hear our pleads for help. But the Bible states that the time of GOD is perfect, in other words we ask and expect to receive now, this moment. But GOD not only knows us but also everything else around us and HIS answer is always the best one for us.
We need to accept that. When we ask something of HIM always we should remember to add, like Jesus Himself said “Not my will but thy will be done”. Then when we do not receive what we asked for glorify HIM knowing that HE has heard us but it is not time yet or what we are asking is not good for us.
As for why we should thank HIM, well the Universe is sustained by HIM, HE created all of it. When I stand on a hot day and I feel the breeze touching my cheeks I thank HIM for the wind and when I see a beautiful cloud formation or the sunset again I think of HIM. HE has guided my steps to where I am today and hope one day to merit to see HIM. Why should I thank HIM?
My friend where to begin?
Peace!
 
Do you want members of CAF to persuade you that you are wrong or to confirm and validate what you are saying? First ask yourself that question. If the former, perhaps you can think of it this way: G-d appears not to be answering your prayers because He wants you to make your own decisions first, using the mind and reasoning ability that He gave you. After you exercise your own free will, hopefully informed by knowledge, wisdom, and conscience, maybe then G-d will intervene and let you know whether you made a good decision or not. In other words, it is not up to G-d to do things for you upon request, but rather to steer you in the right direction after you do things for yourself.
 
Has it occurred to you that what to do with your life God is leaving to your own choice?
‘Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.’ - St Augustine
 
RickAllenMedia said:
He doesn’t do a thing for me.
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God gives the most important gifts of supernatural grace to enable a person to become a partaker in the divine nature. The voice of God is heard in the conscience.
 
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Those verses with the birds and flowers are about putting God first. If you put God first, your not going to care all that much about your car, or food. Your life is eternal, and you don’t need to worry about your earthly life. You just need to take care of it as best you can. Birds and flowers don’t have eternal life.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s a very lofty achievement. It’s something most everyone struggles with.

I don’t think God is very interested in the particular decisions you make in your life. God is concerned about where your heart is no matter what you’re doing.

It’s easy to see some kind of “prosperity gospel” in those verses, but that is not what they are saying. It’s not saying that if you have faith in God then He will give you whatever you think you need. Jesus made that clear in John chapter 6.
 
I am sorry for your frustration - I guess I would say you can be plenty thankful that God has given you the ability to work, to pay bill, to cook the meals. Prayer doesn’t have to be about asking God for stuff or to do things - He’s not a genie in a bottle. If God isn’t telling you what to do, maybe you are already doing what He wants (if we’re talking about work, etc.) There is often a leap of faith which we need to take, knowing that He is along beside us. I would challenge you to make a list of what you can be thankful for and use your prayer time to praise God.
 
Get a cancer or three. Then you will be thankful, even delighted, to be anywhere. I know whereof I speak.

What have you been doing all this time? Has it occurred to you that what you have been doing may be what you are intended to do? Could it be your wants and desires do not accord with God’s will? That dissonance plagues each of us.

Read James 4 regarding praying for the right things. You want answers? Pray for testing. Pray for affliction. You’ll get answers.
 
He gave us all a life, there is little more that needs to be said on my part. (Although I’ve got a lot to say on my part.) I’ve thought about the same thing, but in the end I would have rather been given my circumstance + a CHANCE than to have never existed in the first place. This chance means everything. We have the chance to live out our lives in the glory of God, through works and prayer, so that one day we might be with Him in heaven. And more than ANYTHING we need to know that he LOVES US UNCONDITIONALLY or we wouldn’t even be alive to begin with.

God allows all things to happen in perfect time, here’s an example from my life: A little over 3 years ago, I developed OCD. It has been a painful journey full of spiritual drought and darkness, and for all I know it is far from over. Well, a little over 3 years later, I realized that the entire foundation I laid my obsessions on was complete and utter misinformation. So now what? Should I be mad that God made me waste 3 whole years of my life worried sick about salvation? No. I believe there was an even higher purpose above what my own eyes could see.

So what do my eyes see for the time being? Well, my OCD led me to frequent confession, and for many years I had feared church and the sacraments because I felt guilty 99% of the time. I had found a new parish which offered confessions on Wednesday night. That summer, the parish had gained a new priest and he is more than I could ever ask for. He is a wonderful example of reverence, humility, faith, and just overall love for the people. If I never became sick with a mental disorder, I would have never gotten the chance to know him, and since knowing him, I could not have more passion for my faith. I have an eagerness to attend mass and am more encouraged than ever to live to serve the Lord and His people.

Sometimes your eyes can’t see the patterns and unity that God provides. My sort of ‘philosophy’ is that we are all one breathing organism for Christ. Life makes sense when looking backward, but you can only live it one way - forward. (Not sure where that quote is from but I totally love it).

Either way, I’m praying for you, man. I am hopeful that you will find the strength you need in life through Christ.
 
RickAllenMedia said:
He didn’t fix my car, me and my brother did. I asked for him to keep it from breaking, he obviously said no.
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And who blessed you with a brother who could fix your car? It sounds like God answered your prayers by giving you a brother who can help you in a time of need.
 
I have felt this way at times and realized that I actually knew many things I could do better and was not acting on those things. There were things other people criticized about me. Advice not taken. Goals I cared about but neglected. If there are things like that in your life, take ownership and work on them.

God does not appear to most of us in obvious ways. If you wait for a booming voice to come from the clouds, or sudden knowledge of winning lottery numbers, you will be disappointed.

A person might just realized that being short tempered, or being habitually late, not picking up after themselves, drinking too much, spending irresponsibly or other bad habits hold them back. God already spoke to us about these things, commanding us, for example not to be slovenly, and the be prudent. Have you taken his advice already given?
 
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