Do you pray? Why?

[Sabio]

We have all heard the old saying that "prayer changes things". But what is prayer really all about? Is it communication with God? Is it the recognition of ancestors? Is it the request for assistance from saints who went before you?

But the bottom line is "does it work"?

Anyone have some examples they would like to share?

Sabio

I'll get it started:

Back in 1989, a Brazilian housewife and mother named Elizabeth Cornelio became concerned about her city, Goiania - population 1,200,000 and a major center of spiritism and other problems. So she began meeting for prayer with four women from other churches.



In 1993, she invited Christians all over the city to unite and pray. When 850 showed up, her pastor kicked her out of the church, saying, "Members of other churches are not spiritual brothers and sisters; they are at most spiritual cousins." (A good example of the hard-nosed attitude you won't find in the house churches I beat the drum for.)

Today almost 200,000 women pray for the city every day, linked by her radio program. When the program had to go off the air from March through May of 1999, the crime rate quickly ballooned by 50 percent. The city sent a delegation including the mayor and police chief, beseeching her to get back on the air. (She did, and the crime rate sank.)

Every believer in town gets into the act: Midwives anoint newborns with oil, dedicating them to Jesus; Christians walk the aisles in supermarkets, praying for people; a few preach in bars, to great effect; and some even get up at 4 a.m. to walk through the empty streetcars, praying that God will bless each rider that day.

Don't laugh. In seven years, evangelicals in Goiania went from 7 percent of the population to 45 percent.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45558

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Sabio. Thanks for that Great story.

Terry
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Blessed are those who bring peace, they shall be children of God

 

[Green Gaia]

I meditate to calm and center myself. It works for me.

 

[jewscout]

to connect to HaShem, understand His will and, hopefully, that He hear my requests:162:

 

[Sabio]

I meditate to calm and center myself. It works for me.

Maize,

Do you think your meditations can affect others directly?

Sabio

 

[Green Gaia]

That is not the purpose of meditation.

 

[Jaymes]

I don't bother with prayer. I prefer direct action. Prayer may help some people feel better, but it's just never made me feel better. Even when I was little it felt like I was talking to a wall, only then I believed there was somebody on the other side of the wall.

 

[Sabio]

That is not the purpose of meditation.

I understand, as a Christian I meditate on God, His attributes, His Word, but sometimes there is a fine line between prayer and meditation, focusing on God through meditation just seems to lead to or enjoin prayer...

Sabio

 

[Sabio]

We have been addressing "when we talk to God through prayer", but what about the listening part of prayer, where we listen for the response?

Sabio

 

[Quiddity]

I pray for thanksgiving, focus, peace, and hopes for some assistance in areas that out of my human faculties. Even those that are with in my power, I pray that I do them properly and with love. My prayer sometimes don't get answered and other times it takes a while. Usually because I am impatient and expect something quick.

~Victor

 

[Engyo]

Prayer from the Buddhist perspective is something different. There is no outside force, or entity, being prayed to. Buddhist prayer is not a request. It is an offering. We offer the merits received from our practicing to the subject of the prayer.

As Maize suggested, meditation is meant to change the one meditating, not others. By changing myself, my perceptions, the ways in which I interact with other people and the world in general, I change what happens to me and what I experience.

 

[Sabio]

I pray for thanksgiving, focus, peace, and hopes for some assistance in areas that out of my human faculties. Even those that are with in my power, I pray that I do them properly and with love. My prayer sometimes don't get answered and other times it takes a while. Usually because I am impatient and expect something quick.

~Victor

Sometimes we just can't see the answer materializing, as was the case of Daniel (below) where the Angel sent by God was on the way with an answer from God, but he had to battle through enemy lines (with assistance from Michael the Archangel) to get God's response to Daniel!

This really brings focus to the Spiritual Warfare aspect of prayer taught in the Bible, where believers are taught to war against the enemy through prayer. Many Christans never mature to this level of prayer.

Sabio


Daniel 10:12-14

12 Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. 14 Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come.”

 

[Sabio]

As Maize suggested, meditation is meant to change the one meditating, not others.

I agree with you and Maize on this definition of Meditation.

Sabio