Do you believe in prayer?

[stvdv]

Do you believe in prayer?

I know that Prayer can work miracles

I have experienced it first hand many times. I have seen people heal miraculously after praying, even instantly

God never was discriminating.
Christians prayed to God using Christian Prayer and also Hindus praying to God using Hindu Prayers. The word "God" used was the same, and the effect "being healed" was the same. That proved an essential wonderful point to me

Once I prayed a Sanskrit Prayer in a Dutch Christian Church where other people were chanting in Portuguese beautiful Christian Hymns. Jesus appeared to me. I never expected nor could have thought that to happen. I was so happy though, it proved that Jesus was true to His Teaching "Thou shall not judge (as in discriminate)"

Prayer to God can be much more effective and definitely more rewarding than asking a doctor for Big Pharma medicines

BUT

I don't hold my breath when Praying to God. I have seen more unanswered Prayers than answered Prayers

To rely happily solely on Prayer is only possible if you surrender completely to God, accepting whatever the outcome

 

[Nakosis]

So I've been under stress for quite a while, and it finally resulted in some really weird symptoms and serious loss of energy and appetite.
( This may or may not be covid but I tested negative.)
In the middle of the worst of it, a neighbor got me amoxicillin because I appeared to have a infection in my lymph nodes, and then she asked people in her church to pray for me.
Within two days, my energy and appetite is back, my swollen glands have gone down, and I feel almost normal again.

Now, you can always say it's the antibiotics, it's just sickness running it's natural course, whatever, but there's a difference you can feel when people are praying for you... It's far more than physical. I have experienced this before... Once my wife and I went to a marriage conference where people would pray for everyone there in shifts the entire time. It was like every conversation, and everything we did felt lighter and easier, and when we left we could feel the difference within a day.
Some people say prayers are energy. I prefer to believe that they move God's energy in some way. Do you believe in prayer?

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IMO, prayer helps to program your subconscious mind. Also knowing others are praying for you can make you feel better. It can all go towards having a positive attitude which helps in healing.

Now you don't need prayer for this but that doesn't stop it from working.

 

[sun rise]

Do you believe in prayer?

Yes, I do believe but I also believe that some prayers do not automatically result in what those praying want. When I pray, it's always "If it be your will...". That's because we don't know what is to our ultimate benefit and can ask for unhelpful results even if they seem obviously beneficial.

 

[Wildswanderer]

If I really needed the rain, I don't see that it matters why it rained. I'd just be grateful that it rained.

Grateful to what?
How does being grateful mean anything if it's just to chance?

 

[Wildswanderer]

Yes. I believe in prayer. Even when others may call it's results the placebo effect, at least it has yielded results. I would hardly ever use it alone when sick. I like attacking an aggressor (illness) at all sides with as many means as afforded. Prayer and the support of others is helpful. Modern medicine is an incredible weapon as well. Can't hurt piling all that on to an illness.

I have no problem with going to medical professionals too .. it's just that it takes so long to get an appointment, sometimes. I have a doctor's appointment next week however.
The interesting thing in this case is I did not ask anybody to pray... But as it turns out I have two different churches praying for me. So those that say "it's because you knew people were thinking about you and that gave you good feelings "...the truth is, I started to get better before I even knew.

 

[Wildswanderer]

Does it so? Or is it the knowledge that others are praying for you?

The only thing is, more than once I realized that only after the fact.
My wife had a friend that prayed for us everyday, something which never crossed my mind, but after she died, everything in life just got harder, and it wasn't until my wife made the connection for me that I understood.
And in this current case I did not even know people were praying for me when I first started getting better.
And I was just informed minutes ago that another church was also praying, starting about the same time.

 

[metis]

My prayers are very much of the meditation type, thus normally not prayers of petition.

 

[Left Coast]

So I've been under stress for quite a while, and it finally resulted in some really weird symptoms and serious loss of energy and appetite.
( This may or may not be covid but I tested negative.)
In the middle of the worst of it, a neighbor got me amoxicillin because I appeared to have a infection in my lymph nodes, and then she asked people in her church to pray for me.
Within two days, my energy and appetite is back, my swollen glands have gone down, and I feel almost normal again.

Now, you can always say it's the antibiotics, it's just sickness running it's natural course, whatever, but there's a difference you can feel when people are praying for you... It's far more than physical. I have experienced this before... Once my wife and I went to a marriage conference where people would pray for everyone there in shifts the entire time. It was like every conversation, and everything we did felt lighter and easier, and when we left we could feel the difference within a day.
Some people say prayers are energy. I prefer to believe that they move God's energy in some way. Do you believe in prayer?

I think prayer can be very emotionally and psychologically powerful. And that psychological effect can probably make people feel physically better to some degree (our minds and bodies are connected). Do I think prayers have magical or supernatural powers to cure incurable diseases and the like? No, I haven't seen the evidence to conclude that.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Like @George-ananda, I believe that there are loving and helpful spiritual beings, but I don't necessarily consider communicating with them to be prayer. I have spirit guides, and I converse with them as I would with the living or the dead. If I am unable to understand a message from a lost and confused spirit, I will seek assistance from my spirit guides. I only communicate with them, and I do not seek counsel or companionship from any specific deities. I am still hesitant to connect emotionally with any deities because of my negative experiences with the biblical God. I had a sincere faith in him before becoming a Christian at the age of seventeen, and I had been a devout Christian for thirty years. I prayed to the biblical God for many years, asking and pleading for protection and deliverance, but after years of diligent and sincere prayer to him, I realized that praying to him was a waste of my time and energy. I realized that I was on my own and that it was my responsibility to save and care for myself. I learned that I can stand on my own and take care of myself without relying on God or any other deities to assist me when I needed guidance, heal me when I was sick, or protect me from harm.

 

[metis]

Much like Gandhi believed, I think prayer is much for us, not so much the Boss. After all, might the Boss actually know what we may want even before we pray one word?

Thus, Gandhi taught that God probably answers us through feelings that we must do or not do certain things, but before acting we must make certain that it's moral. I've used this as a guide for several decades now, and I cannot believe how many "doors" that open up.

 

[sun rise]

One more point I just thought of. To me the highest and best prayer is a name of God. That can also be the name of an Avatar. It is aligning yourself with your highest ideal.

 

[PureX]

Grateful to what?
How does being grateful mean anything if it's just to chance?

Gratitude doesn't require that we know to whom or what we are grateful. And it's not about establishing a meaning, necessarily; it's about acknowledging a gift. I am grateful to wake up alive and sober every morning, and to have a job that I like to go to. It means I get to be an autonomous, contributing human being for a while longer, and I see that as a great gift. That's as much as I can know about it. I can attach the label "God" to it, and I often do, but that's just a label. It doesn't explain anything, or mean that I know anything about how and why life is what it is. It just gives me a placeholder for my gratitude. And it's the gratitude that's important, because it helps make my experience of life a better experience than it would be without it. So I want to maintain that attitude of gratitude even if I don't know to what.