Does God Answer Prayers?

[Autodidact]

Again, I can think of different reasons, but I don't really know. Can you think of any reasons other than the conclusion you appear to have reached?

Well yeah...if say, just for example, He didn't happen to exist--that could explain it quite well.

 

[lunamoth]

Well yeah...if say, just for example, He didn't happen to exist--that could explain it quite well.

Yes, that was the conclusion I alluded to Beaux having settled on.

 

[Smoke]

Hey. I don't want this discussion to turn into too much of a straw man. The OP is not about praying for new bikes or selfish things like a "petulant child." It is about praying for selfless, good things like for an acquaintance to be healed of disease. Why wouldn't God grant such a request?

I'm saying that if you really trust God, "Lord, have mercy" is sufficient. If the person you're praying for recovers, you'll thank God, and if he dies, you'll say it must have been the will of God, and you'll praise him anyway. So why make specific requests?

 

[idea]

If the person you're praying for recovers, you'll thank God...

Does God answer prayer? ASU research says 'yes'

Does God answer prayer? ASU research says 'yes'


David R. Hodge, an assistant professor of social work in the College of Human Services at Arizona State University, conducted a comprehensive analysis of 17 major studies on the effects of intercessory prayer ....When the effects of prayer are averaged across all 17 studies, controlling for differences in sample sizes, a net positive effect for the prayer group is produced.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Do you feel called to do anything about it? Do you feel called to do anything to help make the world better?

I know I do. I think that many religious believers do, too... which is where I see this issue as so potentially tragic: if intercessionary prayer really is ineffective, then, IMO, it becomes a mechanism by which good-intentioned people convert their efforts and intentions into nothing at all.

Personally, I think this is awful in an "all that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" sort of way.

I'm saying that if you really trust God, "Lord, have mercy" is sufficient. If the person you're praying for recovers, you'll thank God, and if he dies, you'll say it must have been the will of God, and you'll praise him anyway. So why make specific requests?

Whenever I watch the opening ceremonies for a NASCAR race, when they bring out the pastor/minister/what-have-you for the inevitable invocation, I always watch to see if he'll say something simple like "Our Father, Thy will be done. In Jesus' name, Amen" (with maybe some words of thanks thrown in there somewhere)and just step back from the podium to puzzled looks from the spectators. So far, it hasn't happened.

 

[Beaudreaux]

Does God answer prayer? ASU research says 'yes'

Does God answer prayer? ASU research says 'yes'


David R. Hodge, an assistant professor of social work in the College of Human Services at Arizona State University, conducted a comprehensive analysis of 17 major studies on the effects of intercessory prayer ....When the effects of prayer are averaged across all 17 studies, controlling for differences in sample sizes, a net positive effect for the prayer group is produced.

I have a friend who has been diagnosed with Cancer. Really. Not kidding. Would you please pray for her cancer to go into remission?

 

[Jordan St. Francis]

I'm saying that if you really trust God, "Lord, have mercy" is sufficient.

Midnight, this is a tremendous insight because I wonder if this is not, in the end, what prayer truly comes down to. Every sincere prayer has, in its heart, these words of trust- faith that means we are looking up to God willing to accept whatever he wills- Amen! That is: so be it. So be your will, O Lord.

Lord have mercy- this is the Holy Mass as the Sacrifice of the Cross. Lord look not upon our sins, but upon the faith of your Church. Look upon this gifts, look upon Christ our salvation. Lord have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, bring us to everlasting life...

The perennial prayer was taught by Jesus: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on heaven as it is on earth. Give us our daily bread, forgive us our sins, let us forgive others, keep us from temptation, deliver us from evil."

If we look at the life of Jesus, we can see that he was in constant prayer. We can see that prayer, as modeled in him, is learning to live "by the Word of God", learning to understand what are truly our needs, learning to live in a mode of radical dependence on God.

We know that God is wholly powerful, but we also know that, in his goodness, he permits human freedom and, therefore, all the consequences that might come with its use. God is the solution to our problems yes, but not the mechanical, vending-machine solution. When he does dissolve all the difficulties of the world, it will be when all the elements are dissolved with fire (2 Peter) and the great experiment of our human autonomy has drawn to a close.

In this present age, however, God will not remove the consequences of our actions, even the collective ones that plague the globe, less he rob human activity of meaningful action. He therefore acts in hidden ways among us all, accessible to the eyes and heart of faith, and grants the few with fantastic visions or healings, though never so much so that human life is divested of its unforeseen quality.

Intercessory prayer is an act of compassion. It is co-passio- learning how to suffer [in the spirit] with the struggles and pains of others persons both dear to us and those across the world.

Prayer is a way of carrying in ourselves the tribulations of the world and bringing them, in us, to God- as Christ carried in himself the world's sins and brought them to God. In prayer we become a type of Christ.

However, as Penguin has tried to cynically point out, prayer must also be the precursor to action. Prayer can be a means to have compassion in the spirit, but Christians are also called to suffer in the flesh. Prayer should be the springboard for living- and living for others in generosity, mercy and love. A true life of prayer means also a true life of living these fruits.

 

[Beaudreaux]

Quote:
I'm saying that if you really trust God, "Lord, have mercy" is sufficient.

Midnight, this is a tremendous insight because I wonder if this is not, in the end, what prayer truly comes down to. Every sincere prayer has, in its heart, these words of trust- faith that means we are looking up to God willing to accept whatever he wills- Amen! That is: so be it. So be your will, O Lord.

I still don't get it. When you ask "Lord have mercy" are you:

1. Asking God to show mercy by changing things in the physical world. Healing a person? Giving comfort?
2. Asking Him to do his will? Wouldn't he do that anyway? If you didn't ask him to do his will, would he not do it?
3. Asking God to change something but then acknowledging that whatever happens is fine with you?

 

[Jordan St. Francis]

I would say it is to say "help us- save us- Lord in whatever way it is that you will to help us".

It is paramount that we turn to God this way, for his will for our lives is realized when we participate in it with him.

...He called out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!

"Receive your sight; your faith has healed you."

Luke 18: 35

The Lord is an active power in the world, but he is not the object of empiricism and the sciences. Were this to be so he would become a thing among things, under our control and the object of our mechanizing tendencies. God is not a tool of the Civitas Hominis- the City of Man. Because he is beyond us, because we can not place him in a vile or chart his movements and learn how to use him to our advantage- it is because of this that it is we who are subject to him.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

However, as Penguin has tried to cynically point out, prayer must also be the precursor to action. Prayer can be a means to have compassion in the spirit, but Christians are also called to suffer in the flesh. Prayer should be the springboard for living- and living for others in generosity, mercy and love. A true life of prayer means also a true life of living these fruits.

How is intercessory prayer a "springboard" to action? The way I see it, the traditional view is that one of two things happens:

- the thing prayed for occurs. Problem solved - no action required.
- the thing prayed for doesn't occur. Ah, well. It wasn't God's will.

If this is the case, then you've got two possibilities:

- if the thing prayed for happened, any action on your part would be superfluous.
- if the thing prayed for didn't happen, you shouldn't try to do it yourself because it's apparently not God's will that it does, and you wouldn't want to try to go against the will of God.

Either way, I think that intercessory prayer doesn't prompt action, but stifles it.

 

[Jordan St. Francis]

How is intercessory prayer a "springboard" to action? The way I see it, the traditional view is that one of two things happens:

- the thing prayed for occurs. Problem solved - no action required.
- the thing prayed for doesn't occur. Ah, well. It wasn't God's will.

If this is the case, then you've got two possibilities:

- if the thing prayed for happened, any action on your part would be superfluous.
- if the thing prayed for didn't happen, you shouldn't try to do it yourself because it's apparently not God's will that it does, and you wouldn't want to try to go against the will of God.

Either way, I think that intercessory prayer doesn't prompt action, but stifles it.

Well, your later assertion is, of course, an opinion. Nor does it follow that, because a prayer does not accomplish something through a miracle, it is therefore God's will that we leave it alone. In any case, if it was something that was in our range to accomplish we should certainly be praying for the strength to do it.

How many people pray to be healed of cancer, and then on the account refuse medical treatment?

-The Pro-life movement prays without ceasing- and yet they are incredibly active in trying to make the world aware of the horrors of abortion and trying to end (regardless if one agrees with their aims or exactly at what level they tackle the problem, ie. law).

- how many people pray for the conversion of others, and then fail to ever spread Gospel by their actions or words?

- how many Christians pray for an end to poverty, and then involve themselves in some way in organizations dedicated to the poor? Are not the Churches the historic caretakers of the poor?

Intercessory prayer has many dimensions. In one aspect, it is a way to suffer in the spirit regarding something over which we have no control. Furthermore, it heightens our awareness of the sufferings of others. Just as we meditate on the sufferings of Christ, when we pray for someone else, we meditate on their sufferings as well- and so we enter into a communion of suffering with them.

Intercessory prayer deepens relationships, fosters global awareness, compassion, tenderness, and stillness. It is a way of learning to live for others in the spirit. To those for whom it becomes merely a means to hold off guilt, they are not properly observing Christ.

From the POV of the Catholic tradition, prayer and action belong together- in fact our salvation depends on it, as we are saved in faith working through love.