How does Prayer work?

[Sunday]

Is this a one sided conversation or do you hear God's voice in reply?

How shall I participate in a relationship when I am the only one talking?

Maybe you should be quiet enough to hear.

[California44]

You seem pretty smart. First believe, then surrender. Everything else just falls in place. Its not complicated.

[Barang]

One part of Christian belief that has always puzzled me is the concept of Prayer. If you please, could you enlighten me?

Prayer is communiction between God and you. It's like having conversation with your earthly father.


In times past I have prayed when feeling in despair and grief. It seemed to have no effect that I could detect.
How does it work? Is there one correct way to perform prayer? How is an all powerful God swayed by prayer?

To know God and how He answers sometimes requires bible reading. You will find a lot about God and know His plan and will for you.

Have I been praying incorrectly?

Make sure it's not a selfish one.

If you are in a life and death situation and you plead with every atom or your being for protection and assistance but forget to add "In Jesus Name, Amen" at the end of your prayer is it less effective?

Now, this is interesting. If you pray everyday, praying in Jesus name comes naturally without even thinking about it. This goes to show how much time one spend praying to the Father ending in Jesus name of course.

If, in your terror, you promise to lead a lifetime of piety and strict observance but forget your promise after surviving, will you punished?

Yes! better not to vow and not do it. There was a story about this situation in old testament.... just can't remember the book and chapter.

If God already knows everything you think and feel, everything about your circumstances, does he still wait to be asked to give you what you need?

Would you like your child not to ask you for anything?

How do requests from humans change God's course of action that he would have followed without having heard the prayer?

N/A.

I guess the big question is - If God is Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnibenevolent, wouldn't he already be doing everything for you that he can?

That's the same as spoiling a child. Not good!

[bigmike82]

From a less doctrinal standpoint, prayer can be spiritually calming. Not because you hear voices or anything, but because it allows you to pour out your fears and hurts into a sympathetic audience. It can also be similar to meditation or deep thought in a sense.

[bigmike82]

To be more doctrinal about it, see here:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p4s1.htm

Prayer is not about getting what you want. It's not about asking for a thing, or for something to happen. It's simply...talking (or communing, as the Catechism states).

[pbsmind]

Ask Pastor John just did a post about prayer:

http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/four-motivations-to-pray

[mattymatt]

As far as I can tell this is the cover all bases religion does with it's doctrine. If things go your way, God answered your prayers and if it doesn't, well, that's Gods will. You can tell me all day prayer makes a difference but if it did, you wouldn't need a "cover all bases" type of rule.

[sonofeugene]

Short answer...

It doesn't.

This. Or it only works if you believe it does. But keep in mind that belief does not make something true.

[The War Wagon]

Read.

https://suite.io/edwin-vargas/5j5x2n9

http://www.gfcto.com/articles/church-history/martin-luther/martin-luther-on-prayer

http://easterprays.com/2014/02/14/tips-on-prayer-martin-luther/

[spectre-9]

God has provided a way for mankind, including you, to know Him. He hasn't forced Himself on you. While He desires for you to have relationship, He doesn't force it. We believe as Christians that all things work for our good. Nothing happens to us without it passing through Him; good or bad.

You have the choice to reject. Good luck with that decision.

He offers you a choice, then tells you that if you make the wrong choice you'll spend eternity in conscious torment. It's extortion.

[RAMCLAP]

It's only extortion if you're not guilty. Since we are all rebels against the Most High, it is justice.

[mossy]

He offers you a choice, then tells you that if you make the wrong choice you'll spend eternity in conscious torment. It's extortion.

extortion would be the correct word for it in any other situation but because its "god"................

[Not a Cook]

He offers you a choice, then tells you that if you make the wrong choice you'll spend eternity in conscious torment. It's extortion.

Hmm... more like this: "The Scriptures tell us that we're condemned already because of our sins and that we deserve to be destroyed. They also tell us that God graciously offers us salvation through Christ, through Whom we can be forgiven and receive eternal life and spend eternity with Him in His kingdom. He tells us to choose salvation, life, and blessing, but allows us to foolishly choose death, curses, and destruction instead."

God isn't extorting anyone. He's warned us that we're heading toward destruction and He's graciously offering us to save us. If you choose to continue toward the destruction He's already warned you about, and you are then ultimately destroyed, then that's your choice - but it isn't some form of extortion by God.

Here's what God told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 30:15-20 (NKJV),
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

BTW, this may throw you for a loop: where in the Scriptures do you see "conscious torment"?

[spectre-9]

It's only extortion if you're not guilty. Since we are all rebels against the Most High, it is justice.

Right, so infinite punishment for simply believing the wrong thing for a finite period of time is just.

And what exactly are we guilty of? How are we rebels?

[RAMCLAP]

3 “You shall have no other gods before[a] me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

13 “You shall not murder.

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

15 “You shall not steal.

16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Violated any of these? Then you are a rebel.