Will prayer change anything?

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MadeAnew

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If there is a divine plan already set in place what is the point of praying? If God already has a plan set in place for us our prayers won’t change anything if it goes against the plan He has for our lives. So wouldn’t it be best to just live as whatever happens will happen? It can all be confusing. We have free will but a plan for our lives is already set in place. So shouldn’t we just live since it is already planned out?
 
Prayer is how we talk to God, how we grow in our relationship to Him.

Jesus told us to ask the Heavenly Father for what we need, even though He already knows it.
I don’t understand everything about how that works, but I trust Jesus’ word.

God does work in our hearts when we pray to Him, removes some of our faults and purifies us
 
MadeAnew said:
If there is a divine plan already set in place what is the point of praying?
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But you don’t know what that plan is… what if the plan includes you receiving X Y and Z in response to your prayers? God is merciful.
 
I was diagnosed with kidney cancer last year … it was seen on a scan … after many prayers here and from my family, when I was scanned again it disappeared. Prayers work.
 
MadeAnew said:
If there is a divine plan already set in place what is the point of praying?
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Prayer also changes us. God does not merely expect us to follow along willy-nilly with the plan, He wishes us to want what He wants. Prayer is one of the best schools for learning to conform one’s will to the Father’s, whatever it may be.
 
Aside from the panicdemic, I can state that overthinking is a considerable problem today. Philosophy is crucial, but makes my head hurt - and an awful lot of what passes for philosophy strikes me as overthinking. We cannot re-invent the wheel of creation.

As mentioned above, we have a relationship with God. We are children, not analysts. It is a loving relationship. Dialog is crucial in any human relationship. Infinitely more so with God.

Perhaps a call to Dr. David Anders during his EWTN talk show Called to Communion might help clear things up.
 
And, when prayers don’t seem to “work”, it doesn’t mean God isn’t listening. He allows what is best for our spiritual growth. We need to learn to trust, no matter what.

We are finite, God is infinite. We don’t have to second-guess Him. He loves us infinitely and knows what is best for us spiritually.
 
MadeAnew said:
God already has a plan set in place for us our prayers won’t change anything
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Except our souls. We were created to pray and love and worship God. Praying fulfills our destiny. Sometimes this comforts us and sometimes we feel nothing.
The Church presents prayers of Saints that are inline with the Lord’s Prayer spirit, of complete obedience to God and asking for the Charism of meekiness and love. Pray for that and there is always something happening within you.
 
God does not have a plan in place for everyone and is not controlling everything thing happening in the world if he is then their is absolutely no free will. Its not what the church teaches.
 
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I think what you might be missing is that we should do a morning offering of our day to God, uniting ourselves with the infinite merit of Christ, to impact the world for good.

The story of the boy bringing Christ his few loaves and fish is our story. With our participation, the feeding of the 5 thousand happens. He could have just sat down and ate those items and nothing would have changed in the world.

When it’s annoying to have to wear a mask, stand in line, take care of what is ours to take care of with all the head ache that goes with it, this is like currency in the bank, if you can have the awareness of uniting with Christ. This is how Christ says at the end of our life ‘Good and faithful servant! Come into your reward prepared for you!’
 
MadeAnew said:
If there is a divine plan already set in place what is the point of praying? If God already has a plan set in place for us our prayers won’t change anything if it goes against the plan He has for our lives. So wouldn’t it be best to just live as whatever happens will happen? It can all be confusing. We have free will but a plan for our lives is already set in place. So shouldn’t we just live since it is already planned out?
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I think it should be said up front that God and his ways cannot be entirely comprehended.

A more wordy answer: in the Divine Economy, God who is omniscient and ominipresent has in mind every prayer from eternity to eternity and uses those prayers - bound together in the Communion of Saints - for people to participate with God in his work and in his love and even in his glory. These prayers daily affect us in ordinary ways but can also affect us in extraordinary ways through miracles. So yes: God has a plan for everything, and yet simultaneously all of our prayers throughout eternity are part of that plan and by the grace of God they have the power to change ourselves and the world for good.

In Heaven, we will learn about all of the hidden ways that prayer aided us throughout our lives. How a homeless stranger in Bangladesh may have helped a hermit nun in America, and how that nun may have helped thousands of strangers that she never met in her earthly life through her prayers, etc.

Peace.
 
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Katherine438 said:
I was diagnosed with kidney cancer last year … it was seen on a scan … after many prayers here and from my family, when I was scanned again it disappeared. Prayers work.
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I have a similar story. I requested prayers on the forum for a friend who was going to have a biopsy for possible breast cancer. A member PM’d me offering prayers in exchange for prayers for herself, as she was in identical circumstance. Neither biopsy occurred because the suspected tumor was undetectable.

I’m going to miss this forum.
 
“MadeAnew said:
If there is a divine plan already set in place what is the point of praying?
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The divine plan includes our prayers and free will choices.
If God already has a plan set in place for us our prayers won’t change anything if it goes against the plan He has for our lives.
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Again, the divine plan includes our prayers and free will choices so that what God wants to give us depends on us asking him for it. We can ask God for various needs of soul and body and not only for ourselves but for others as well either living or dead such as helping the holy souls in purgatory. So, God has ordained in the divine plan that it is by our prayers that many things are given or granted to us and others and that without those prayers those many things are not granted.
We have free will but a plan for our lives is already set in place.
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The divine plan includes our free will choices which also involves prayer by which we are better off if we follow God’s will and commandments or worse off if we don’t. Will prayer change anything? Yes, because God has ordained in the divine plan that through prayer not only ourselves can be changed or converted but by our prayers we can help others too toward conversion.
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Jesus was on his way to be crucified, and as a last ditch effort he said “Father, not what I will but what you will, let this cup pass from my hand.” Then ANGELS ministered to him after he prayed a third time. Sweat dripped from his head so it looked liked blood falling to the ground. It sounds to me like prayer makes everything better regardless of what’s going to happen. It would’ve been a lot more dull in that watch if he was pessimistic, don’t you think?

Plus, God wills no man to goto Hell but a lot of people do. And that’s God’s will. So I THINK we have some say in what happens.
 
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