Answered prayers

I was wondering if anybody would like to share any experiences they have had of their prayers being answered.

What were you praying for?

How long did it take until your prayer was answered?

Would you consider yourself a very faithful person?

First of all how would you know that your deity of choice was actually answerng your prayers and not just a coincidence ?
Secondly how would that work for an atheist like myself who thinks 'I could do with ????' or ' I wish that would happen' and it does. Would you say that it was your deity that gave me my wish?
Finally, how can you account for the 'answered prayers' of other religious groups if their god is not your god?



G

I've worn glasses or contacts from the age of 13 up until I was about 22. I know it sounds sort of selfish, but I remember praying several times for my eyes to work properly. I couldn't stand wearing glasses. Contacts are okay, but it's still not the same has having good vision. They get dry in the afternoon, and you can't wear them while your swimming. (A favorite pass-time of mine)

I probably made this request numerous times while I was in high-school. Nothing ever happened. When I was about 22 I started looking into corrective eye surgery. At the time it was over $2000 an eye which was way out of my price range. (Now it gets interesting) I mentioned my interest in passing to my mother. She was a nurse at a Veteran's Administration(VA) hospital and was concerned about my interest in selective surgery. About a week later she was in an elevator with their hospital's ophthalmologist and she asked him if the procedure was safe. His answer...."Not only is it safe, but I'm one of only two Drs in the VA system that is trained to perform this surgery."

He then went on to tell her that he was going to retire in 2 months and start his own practice and joked that he could squeeze me in if I was a veteran. Thanks to my prior service record I was able to have the surgery done. At no cost to me whatsoever.

It did take about 5-6 years for my prayer to be answered, but I'd be a fool to claim that I accidental received free corrective eye surgery. Not only did it answer a prayer, it taught me a lesson about waiting for God's timing.

Do I consider myself faithful? Not always, but I do try.

how can you account for the 'answered prayers' of other religious groups if their god is not your god?

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matthew 5:43-45 NIV)

If God only answered the prayers of the righteous, how would He hear the plea of a sinner asking for forgiveness.

I am not religious and even though some might consider that I've had a 'prayer answered', I don't really consider it a prayer and I don't think a deity had much to do with it, as I'm not sure there is a deity.

Having said that, when my mother was dying of cancer, I just 'knew' when her last night was going to be. Even though my mother was unconscious, my sister and I just knew. I can't explain how. We and my father decided to sleep in shifts so as to be with her till the end. At some point it became clear that the time was near. After waking my father, I wrapped a blanket around myself and went outside to give him a moment alone with her and as I sat on the steps in the still desert midnight, I said (to no one in particular), "Please take her swiftly and peacefully."

At that instant, a very cool gust of wind blew across me and whipped up the blanket. Just once. I went back inside and spent the last few moments with her as she died, swiftly and peacefully.



I am a very faithful person, just not in the way that most people think of "faith". I'm pretty much agnostic as far as a God, and I'm not religious, but I am very spiritual and I know there is a lot more to us than the physical world. I believe in life after death because I have communicated with people 'there', including my mother.

dbates, I don't often agree with you on subjects of this matter, but this time, I think you've got it right on.

Maybe just the act of asking a question, asking for help, actually helps focus a certain amount of our psychic energy on the question. Then, either the universe answers us back, or we ourselves become open to asking the next question, finding the next level, and thus eventually finding our way to an answer. Anyway, I think it's something about that process that makes praying more effective than wishing.

My entire life has been one "answered prayer". Seriously. As dumb as the decisions I have made in the past, and the outcome of which said becoming more burdensome in the present. I can honestly tell you and would die for the belief that my prayers have been answered. What is funny is that our prayers are answered EVERY day. Maybe we just don't recognize them or acknowledge them because they almost always are never EXACTLY what we were "wishing" to occur.

Fact of the matter is, these prayers will be answered in a fashion that benefits you the most. It's all a part of God's master plan I believe.

I see it like this, say your car broke down and you were planning on buying what "appeared" to be the deal of the century, with you're knowledge you would buy this only to not have the capacity to forsee that six months from now it will break down on the freeway and you'll be struck by a dumptruck.....pretty bad deal.
Our prayers "wishes" were we to answer them exactly the way WE wanted, probably would'nt pan out so well.....


P.S. God does have a witty sense of humor as well, and timing is of the essence.....

Thanks for sharing your stories. If you're like me, then you believe that prayer really works.