Has God ever really answered your prayers ?

reply to post by Iason321


Really? How can you be sure it's not you?

Have you read about Noetics yet? No? Then you can hardly consider yourself educated in the matter.

Enjoying this thread.

Through my own experience, I have found that the more I want a certain something. -Something that is for 'good'. -Something I can try to put a bit of effort and love into myself ... then my personal prayers get answered more often than not.

I find that if your prayers are for someone other than yourself, that it helps not only them, but it helps you remind yourself that you aren't the only one in this world with problems and experiences and a life to live.

I'm kind of a "sprinkler Christian" as my dad puts it. I show up at Church once in a while, like a holiday usually.

Anyways, I respect all religious beliefs... as long as they carry the same theme to which all good Gods teach.

The simple message of Love!

It's the theme of most of these books! And the more the rest of the world jumps on the "caring for eachother" bandwagon, the better place the entire world will be!

Thanks everyone!
Peace!

Just freestylin' here, I don't particularly care about god, but:

I don't think god answers prayers. I don't think the creator of the universe has any kind of omnipotent power, other than that laid down in the local structure we have evolved within. We're made from gods laws, but god isn't sitting around tweeking the parameters at will. Any real interference in human affairs would leave a physical trail that we could collect data on and model using physics. I don't see any evidence of that in day-to-day human affairs (yet?).

The best prayer you can do is to study the structure of the universe and try to see things as they really are, and to try to speak the truth about that. Praying to god to ask for favours or forgiveness or anything like that is pointless - I really don't think god is capable of caring about our affairs in this way.

Well, when I woke up this morning Beyonce wasn't beside me, and I still don't have the ability to jump and run like Spring Heeled Jack. So my answer would have to be no.

yes.
He has.

do you have more faith now? Less for my sarcastic tone? Mankind thinks it popular to bash religion so everyone does it.

I say keep some things sacred.

In our times, then, it is not any longer a secret that the enemies within and outside the Church want to destroy belief in the divinity of Christ. Once the liturgy is humanized, Christ the center and Object of it becomes the humanist, par excellence, the liberator, the revolutionary, the Marxist ushering in the millennium; he ceases to be the Divine Redeemer. We must be alerted to these shadows of the Antichrist who plan, by convincing us to abandon our sacred forms, at length to seduce us into denying the Christian faith altogether.

The Church is attacked by these children of Satan in and outside her fold, because she is a living form, "the sacrament- the sign and instrument- of communion with God and of unity among all men"; because she is the visible body of religion. Hence these shrewd masters of sedition know that when her sacred forms go, religion will go also.

Once again we find that Cardinal Newman foresaw another serious attack upon the Christian Faith. This time he warned Christians against innovators who would relax Christian forms and usher into the Church liturgical frenzy. Such devotees of change question every Christian form of prayer, every posture of devotion, every devotion itself and the very personal or traditional symbols of the faith.

Their lust for innovation is used as a battering ram against the stability of long-established, time-tested sacred rites, which have been witnesses and types of precious Gospel truths for Christian communities. Hurriedly, even violently, they replace divine forms with new diluted Masses, new prayers, new sacraments, new churches, new terminologies - all of which confuse the faithful.

www.marys-touch.com...

the physical functional and vocal attributes proscribed by religion to our supreme Creator,
are so....
insulting

reply to post by kman420


OMG! 3/4 of the world is schizophrenic. That could only mean that God is the voice in their heads... I wrote these lines a few years ago, and just realized your right!!

God is Love
Your love is only limited by your mind
For your mind has limits
Your heart doesn't
Thus once God's Love grips your heart
You live in an altered state of reality

reply to post by BiggerPicture


true, so is thinking one could possibly know him beyond a shadow of a doubt to not reside within any system made by HIS creation. Either way the focus is not on this world, it is on the next. The one that surrounds us and envelops this existence and all others.

Why single out one error in judgment and not the other that depends on the first being a fallacy.

Because your fight has not been with flesh and blood, but with Principalities and The Rulers and The Powers of this dark world and with wicked spirits which are under Heaven.

Ephesians 6:12

Here is something I resonated with. I think that the trendy-ness of God bashing has gotten out of hand. The same way we have little value on life we now move dangerously close to remove the sacred from the sacred.

Religion as a form of enlightenment instead of a form of worship. The self is made more powerful instead of the worship in something more than what we can see.

What´s the point if not, a more satisfying way to masturbate mentally about how great you are? Where is the reverence and respect for all things not you?

Liturgical détente has led to the loss of the sense of the sacred. To realize this tragic event we must reflect on what the sense of the sacred really comprises. The sacred is a mystery. It heralds the presence here and now of the world above, the world of the divine, and it fills man with incomparable reverence.

The sacred reveals that the religious sphere is set apart, wonderfully superior and distinct from the rest of man's existence. But this apartness, far from precluding contact between the religious and natural spheres of man's existence, is actually a precondition for their fruitful intercommunion.

Sacredness is one of those ultimate data perceived in and by itself, unexplainable, indivisible, mysterious. Sacredness is a reality which does not exist solely outside man as a knower, but it invades and involves the whole man as a free person.

The sacred seizes each man in his ontological, intellectual, psychological and historical developments. [Alice von Hildebrand, Introduction to a Philosophy of Religion, Chicago, Franciscan Herald Press, 1970, Chap. IV, pp. 32-39]

Much of the new liturgy has been drained of the numinous and the sacred. The new forms are without splendor, flattened, undifferentiated. Why was kneeling replaced by standing? Jesus himself fell on his knees and on his face as he prayed to his heavenly Father.

Satan too knows the meaning of worship and man's need for it. He tried to get Jesus to fall down and worship him. Why has the liturgical year and the Mass been so unfortunately mutilated against the wishes of the faithful? In fact, the faithful are now confused about the Mass, the feasts of the saints, the holy seasons.

Why was the Gloria, that prayer of total concentration on God's Majesty and Goodness, restricted practically to Sundays alone, and only to those Sundays outside of Lent? Moreover, is the faith really renewed and vivified by obscuring our sense of community with the Christians of apostolic and ancient times?

The new liturgy no longer draws us into the true experience of reliving the Life of Christ. We are deprived of this experience through the elimination of the hierarchy of feasts and the at random changing of the dates of famous feasts. [Dietrich von Hildebrand, The Devastated Vineyard, Franciscan Herald Press, Chicago, 1973, pp. 70ff]

Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His people on earth. Lord God heavenly King, almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory. Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world; have mercy on us; you are seated at the right hand of the Father; receive our prayer. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

www.marys-touch.com...

"Gloria in excelsis Deo" ("Glory to God in the highest")

Originally posted by Zeer0

Originally posted by Lasr1oftheJedi



No seat beat no air bag in a ford ranger late 90s model that hit a telephone pole at 120 miles an hour. Rolled it thrice which crushed the cabin of the truck down to the dashboard on the driver's side (where I was). The engine block was thrust under the vehicle, which is by design. If not, it would've impaled me clean. But that I do attribute to engineering. I won't claim to be a physicist, but I know that if I could show you the pics of that wreck (moved a few times since then, and I know, conveniently enough, have lost those pics, as well as things far more important to me, in such moves.), you might even think "hm, maybe that was some divine intervention."

Why didnt you mention this in your first post? Im sorry but i am very doubtful of Human integrity and if you dont have any pictures to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this happened im going to remain skeptical.

I understand that things like this can be hard to believe, as it has been throughout the ages of man. But I would dare say that sometimes (not always, just sometimes) the logical explanation is God did it.

I think the better assumption should be that you simply don't know. Many attribute things that are unknown to us to the divine and shut their minds off to any logical explanations.

Another example. My grandmother in the late 1980s is diagnosed with cancer. The doctor gives her a month to live, if she is lucky.

As a family, we pray, every day, for her. Now sure, she still sees a doctor, and receives treatment. Faith is important, but God put people with the sharps to be doctors on the planet for a reason. At the end of the month, there was not one cell of cancer in her. Not one. Her doctor said he had never see anything like it. "Just short of a miracle" was his exact words.

I would attribute this to a 'Miracle' of Medicine. Its not like Jesus stood over her and cured her. The best thing explanation is that you don't know.

Sorry it took so long to respond. Me and mine were out on free comic book day. It's like a family event. Also, I apologize if I came off as brash in my response earlier, I have my moments. I blame my head traumas, but maybe I'm just an a-hole by nature. Certainly I've been such in prior posts on other threads, at which in reflection made me realize I wasn't acting in the most approperate mannor. Thankfully the masons on this site are A) Use to abuse, sad but true. B)Willing to stay civil despite how spoken to. Just a lil props you guys from the side, for the whole "ask a mason thread", but back on topic...

I do appreciate you trying to open my mind as it were. Show me all the opitions and all that. It was also kind of you to state your joy (maybe not joy, I couldn't think of a better word, sorry.) that I survived my experince. It was heartwarming, so I know you're a caring and intelligent person.

Now, with my sincere apologizes in place, I shall address the comments made.

I agree, as even In my own profile, I state proof walks better than suggestion. So I won't ask you to take my word on it. That's okay, I live with it everyday. I was 16, and stupid. I didn't buckle up because I thought I was invincable, as most teens do. Airbags wern't standard in earlier model pickups, atleast the ford model for sure. So I didn't mention it because I thought it was reiteration. As for the serverity, well, some take it as bragging, so I avoid the details. That, and it's not exactly a fond memory, but I do believe it is a testiment to the fortune that life has shown me.

As for the beyond explained, I suppose I've just seen alot of "wild" moments in life. Things that I got to live through, as well as those I cared for, that broke the odds all to blip and back. Is there a scientific explaination? Maybe. I certainly looked. I was so confused on how it was possible I could've survived this event, it caused me to doubt everything from reality to worth. This statement alone I know shows I could have been vunrable to the influence of the bible belt I live in. As all my friends were like "Dude, God loves you." So I get that. I really do. If this or even just my grandmother's example was the only moments in my life that showed the odds seem to not simply apply to me, I would be easily swayed to brush it off as happenstance. But there are more, alot more, times when my goose should've been throughly cooked, and yet I walked out of that spit pile smelling like a rose. Does that mean every time I called on God I got what I asked for? Most certainly not! Many requests of greed went unanswered through those young and turbulant years. That's because God doesn't answer greed (from my perspective), but love, man oh man does he answer love.

Running out of characters, I will reply to the rest in the next post. Thank you again for your kindness, insite and intrest. It's nice to talk to a sound mind.

reply to post by BIHOTZ


You seem to be pushing your religion here, I think the thread is about prayer, and not prayer in a specific denomination. God has given Himself to us through many different religions, He was Siddhārtha Gautama, Jesus, Zeus and Indra. The only people He gave Himself to directly were the Jews, but they proved very early on that He was right in giving us religion instead of Himself. Their forsaking of Him started very early on, and continued throughout history. The Jews are not a horrid People, People are horrid, as they out themselves above God Himself. We could never worship God the way He deserves to be worshipped. If you are to worship God directly, without the Mary's and the saints whom you believe are more capable of hearing your prayers than God Himself, then you are never to do wrong. For if your religion is God, there is no room for error. But the bitter irony of this life is that you are made in God's Image, but condemned to be satans slave through your sinfulness, therefore, drop all the little rituals, the kneeling, the beads that you chant to,the statues you light candles to, and seek Truth. God is not catholic, God is simply Love. That is the Truest thing.

I don't think there's a god answering prayers. To see all the pain and suffering that innocent people have to endure, I can't imagine ANY father letting his children suffer like those children do.

I googled to see if there were any statistics on Atheists vs Christians or Muslims or Hindus and accidents of all kinds. Which ones have more accidents. If your God exists It would make sense that if you prayed regularly you would have less accidents or even deaths from accidents. I found statistics on divorce rates and Christians on average get divorced about 5-10% more than atheists, so that's not very affirming for answering prayers, even considering that it's a sin to get divorced in some faiths. You make this promise sealed by God and these people can't keep that promise. Weird to me at the very least.

WE are the masters of our destiny and WE control what happens in our lives or at the very least, how we deal with what happens..

I think people want to believe in God because they want AN answer, because they're not happy with the unknown. If someone doesn't have an answer for a difficult question, they say that it's God's will. I think God is a way to limit people's minds and a way for a limited few to control the masses. It's also a way to cop out and use the teachings of your religion to go against common sense. Common sense is poison to religious thought.

I used to believe in God and then I grew up. The evidence for God is limited to personal beliefs, which can't be proven and when actually followed can harm people's lives, liberty, and happiness.

This one quote from Epicurus breaks it down for me:

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

I have no problem with someone following a religion until they feel their morality is above mine. And that's why I'm speaking out now because too many "Christians" don't even come close to following the ways of Christ, who I think actually lived and who probably taught people to be good to each other, but wasn't divine.

People always ask me, "What if you're wrong?" and I tell them that if I am, God and I will sort it out in the afterlife. I don't need saving. I can guarantee that people will say this place was better because of me. But if I'm right, you lived your entire life perpetuated by a lie. Duped because you were too gullible or too dim to see the truth.

As for my grandmother, anyone alive durning the 80s knows cancer medicine was hardly worth a squat at the time. And nothing, even according to her attending physician, was going to pull her through. Maybe, at best, buy her time. He spent alot of time in school to garner such knowledge, so I have to believe the doctor wasn't just blowing smoke. Is it possible, sure. But as fanatical as it sounds, I do believe Jesus said, "Hey, that one down there has a few more days in her. Let me show them my power so that they might believe." I know, nuts, right? But science and medicine didn't have the answer, so why is it so much a strech to believe something higher took care of it where man could not? There's more to this live than what we see and what we can touch. This much I know is true. Is the church right? I don't know. Man runs it. Man makes folley. But I do believe in a higher power. I do believe that miricals take place, I've seen way too many to believe elsewise. Perhapse I'm just stubborn that way, and if I come off as a brick, I apologize. I am open to new knowledge, new experince and new understanding. But as much as I like to think I'm a free thinker, I have to come to that ultimate admition that I believe in a God, and I believe Christ has come, and did amazing things before and after his crusifiction, and ressurrection. I don't state this as a "It's my way or the highway" kinda deal. You don't have to share this belief, imo. I believe God speaks to all His children in a way they can understand Him, because He loves them. The obvious counterpoint is "Then why do bad things happen? Why does X suffer in this way when he or she acts so honorable, while total scumbags rule the world? " I don't know. I never had all the answers, and honestly, I doubt I ever will. But I do know what I have personally experinced. I do know what I've seen with my own two eyes, and so for me, it's nearly impossible to deny there is something greater to life than just what we can decern with the genius we have. I don't mean this to be whipping the dead horse, or even to convert. It was simply intended to be a reply to the original heading, "Has God ever really answered your prayers?", because I can honestly say, from my perspective (which is all reality is to anyone of us.) He has.

Thank you for your concideration on this, even if we don't agree, I appericate the thoughtfulness you put into your replies.

Originally posted by Lasr1oftheJedi
As for my grandmother, anyone alive durning the 80s knows cancer medicine was hardly worth a squat at the time. And nothing, even according to her attending physician, was going to pull her through. Maybe, at best, buy her time. He spent alot of time in school to garner such knowledge, so I have to believe the doctor wasn't just blowing smoke. Is it possible, sure. But as fanatical as it sounds, I do believe Jesus said, "Hey, that one down there has a few more days in her. Let me show them my power so that they might believe."

While that is true there is a probability that anything can happen even though the odds are not in your favor.

I know, nuts, right? But science and medicine didn't have the answer, so why is it so much a strech to believe something higher took care of it where man could not?

To me its a stretch because of the lack of evidence to would prove there is DIRECT Divine Intervention. And this is what it all comes to is that there is not one shred of credible evidence to support that these stories had Divine Intervention, that Miracles happen and that God exists (not trying to put you down but its a fact)

There's more to this live than what we see and what we can touch. This much I know is true

And this belief is based on what?

reply to post by LastProphet527


I don't know about the good lord, but whatever i it is that i identify as 'god' has most certainly answered my prayers when I am clear and concise with them.Not always, but often.

reply to post by grahag


God is with you, but are you with God?
God is love, yes, but are you love too?
It is God's will that old people suffer...
Sometimes evil young people become evil old people
They need to find God, in order to overcome their sins and suffering (the lessons get harder)
Sometimes their evilness prevents them from seen that God has graced them with those years, so they can still make amends - that is the Wisdom and the Grace of a Loving Father
People say it is God's Will when a family is wiped out in an accident, but God isn't neglectful, people are... They cause their own accidents.
We are the ones walking around with hatred, raping and murdering one another, fighting for gold and oil and not considering the poor we tramp upon. Yet we blame God! The only time you blame God is when the sea washes into the land, the earth cracks and breaks, then you know He is fed up! Port Royal, Jamaica, was known as the most wicked city in the world, in 1692 it was sucked into the sea. Such things have happened over and over again in history, from Pompeii to Atlantis. This is God's creation, we are a portion of Him, we know when we are doing wrong, we don't need religion to tell us, yet we persist in our wrong doing. The lessons get harder....

Originally posted by Atisha
Without God we have nothing. That is the bottom line. God is my savior and my guidance. He has been there when none other was. He helped me struggle through. I do owe my life to God.

God Bless,

Gen. Andrew F. Strasser

You've got it backwards. WITH a god you are nothing. A puppet. A toy. And if you don't work right, he'll throw you in a fire.

In your mind create a world, and create people on that world. The people are working, learning, making babies... Now, stop thinking about that world. What happened to the people? They ceased to exist because they didn't exist in the first place.

So, if a god created us, then we don't exist.

I have one prayer at this time, one thing truly worth praying for. It's not myself. It has very little to do with myself, considering how little is connected with me in this world.

If I were to pray, I would pray for world peace. Not the kind that you hear about at beauty pageants, or the kind that leaders talk about. I mean a world where no one fought, where everyone considered everyone else's opinion and then agreed to disagree.

Humankind has shown that it cannot handle conflict responsibly, so I want a world where conflict is kept to a very bare minimum. I have not prayed for this in a long time, although I have desired to happen quite a lot recently. And if thoughts have any power (as I believe they do) then I hope I'm adding a few drops to the wishing well of the world. And I'm sure I'm not the only one asking for this...which says that whoever is actually praying for it, isn't being answered.

So far, I don't see a whole lot of improvement in the world, although admittedly, people are stepping up and demanding change. Is that the form it was supposed to take? If so, it's going to be a very long process.

But hey, maybe the world will value it a little more that way. Although really, I wouldn't say "No" to a drastic change. If it saves our future, and improves us permanently, so be it.

Yes, he answers my prayers.

He listens to all sincere prayers.

He does not answer all prayers.

He does not listen to insincere prayers.

He may answer prayers in a way we did not expect.

No one can prove God to you. He will do that on his own. It is pointless to try and prove someone to someone who doesn't want to believe.

Faith is a belief in the unseen although it can be proven to exist, or you have concrete evidence, without a shadow of a doubt it will come about.

When that faith is realized then hope is no more. You cannot hope for things you see, you cannot have faith in things you behold.

When God does finally reveal himself to everyone, then faith in him will be pointless for all will KNOW that He is real.

It is those who have faith now that will do well.

(2 Thessalonians 3:2) . . ., for faith is not a possession of all people.


(Romans 8:24, 25) . . .For we were saved in [this] hope; but hope that is seen is not hope, for when a man sees a thing, does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we keep on waiting for it with endurance.


(Hebrews 11:1) Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld.

(John 20:29) . . .Jesus said to him: “Because you have seen me have you believed? Happy are those who do not see and yet believe.”

(Ezekiel 38:23) . . .And I shall certainly magnify myself and sanctify myself and make myself known before the eyes of many nations; and they will have to know that I am Jehovah.’

Originally posted by Zeer0

Originally posted by Lasr1oftheJedi
As for my grandmother, anyone alive durning the 80s knows cancer medicine was hardly worth a squat at the time. And nothing, even according to her attending physician, was going to pull her through. Maybe, at best, buy her time. He spent alot of time in school to garner such knowledge, so I have to believe the doctor wasn't just blowing smoke. Is it possible, sure. But as fanatical as it sounds, I do believe Jesus said, "Hey, that one down there has a few more days in her. Let me show them my power so that they might believe."

While that is true there is a probability that anything can happen even though the odds are not in your favor.

I know, nuts, right? But science and medicine didn't have the answer, so why is it so much a strech to believe something higher took care of it where man could not?

To me its a stretch because of the lack of evidence to would prove there is DIRECT Divine Intervention. And this is what it all comes to is that there is not one shred of credible evidence to support that these stories had Divine Intervention, that Miracles happen and that God exists (not trying to put you down but its a fact)

There's more to this live than what we see and what we can touch. This much I know is true

And this belief is based on what?

Lottery winners surely show beating the odds, I agree with that. Sometimes the odds are just a number created by man to make sense of things they can't make sense of. Is this what happened with Grandma, I suppose it could be. But I apologize for my mindset that I just don't buy it was a "lucky roll of the dice" for her, so to speak. To assume it to just be chance isn't so far a strech from believe it was divine.

I truely believe you arn't here to insult my beliefs, I came to the conclusion that you simply wish to open my mind to new possiblities, new thoughts. There's nothing wrong with that. Heck, I believe that is what ATS is all about. If we can't openly discuss our diffrent views on life here, I just don't know anymore... That being said, I agree it's hard to prove a miracle (bout time I spelt it right, have your post to thank for that ^.~), because by defination a miracle is something that breaks all the rules. It blows the mind in the fact that it's impossible to wrap the brain around. That's where the church and Christ asked for faith. This is easily countered by the statement "Well, yeah. They want you to believe that, because then you pay the church, and don't put any more thought into it." It was a "miracle", no more explaination needed. If you were hoping I could somehow rationalize miracles, I'm afraid I won't succeed at this task. It's like with Thomas for some, until you see it with your own eyes, touch it with your own hands, it simply isn't real. This isn't intended to suggest there is a closedmindness on this (I might be paranoid that this is your thought, if it is, I totally apologize, as I have no intention to put words in your mouth, and maybe I just put my own foot in mine) as Christ even warned there would be bsers throughout time that would claim they performed or witnessed miracles that simply arn't. This is why, imo, miracles are so scrutinized (ouch on spelling...), because so many are willing to lie to defend thier stance. I get that, I honestly do. Still, I believe God speaks to all his children in a way they get. I believe He talks to you, in demanding a rational mind and explaination for events. We need people that demand truth over suggestion. This is a good thing.
With that said, once you've seen, and those eyes are open to the metaphysical realm, it's impossible (atleast for me) to go back to "all things are what they are and there is nothing outside of our senses" state of mind.

As for my belief system. Well, I agree, some comes from region. Some comes from personal perspective. And some, well, it comes from those things that I have witnessed that carry no explaination. This doesn't mean I'm not willing to go in depth and search for those answers. I've always carried a curious mind, wanting more than just a "Well, it wa s miracle, now let it go". I agree, not my style. Again, since I have no photographic evidence, i can't be "Just take my word for it.", but, I know what I've seen. And I've seen enough to know there has to be something more. There's just no way. Doctors with a way higher IQ (and depsite brain tramua, I still pack a decent IQ. I'm no supergenius, but I'm no slouch either.) than mine told me as much. "There's just no way man, you are dumb lucky." (paraphrasing). So I suppose the simple answer (which I should've just stated, right? Thanks for listening to the ramble.) is that my personal life experince has developed my belief system.