by JH 17 Replies latest jw friends
Did you honestly believe that praying for someone else or someone praying for you would have a better chance of working than just the person praying alone for himself?
Gee, why would God need many people to pray for one person? Isn't one prayer honest enough?
Will many prayers work better than just one prayer?
That depends on 'who' you are praying to...LOL!
Hi, JH, I'm sorry but I must admit that I simply don't know the answer to your question.
All I can say is that a Christian believes prayer to be a gift from God. And since Christianity is a communal fellowship of the many, as opposed to a restricted, even exclusive membership, it is as much a communal activity as it is a deeply private affair.
The Pauline epistles were written by a man who was deeply committed to prayer. He is constantly breaking out into thanksgiving, adoration, petition, and doxology, A good summary of Paul's teaching on prayer is found at 1Tim 2:1-8.
Christianity has often been described not, as a religion, but a relationship. Not just a relationship of the individual, but the wider community of believers at large to God. As Paul shows at vs 8 of the above mentioned text, the prayers of the many evidently are as effective, if not more so, than that of an individual. Why? Dunno. Paul did'nt elaborate. He merely recommended.
Cheers
Strange as it may seem this is a very common belief about prayer -- already in the Bible.
What I like in prayer is that it is irrational even to believers ("God knows everything, doesn't need us to ask, has already decided," etc.).
Bottom line: Nothing fails like prayer.
I got thirteen angels dancing on the head of a pin, is that what you got?
... yeah, it was so nice to tell people you're praying for them. Like, well God's gotta hear that.
My favorite line from an otherwise silly movie, "The Island"
"You know, when you want something really bad, and you close your eyes and wish for it? Well, God's the guy who ignores you!"
In the O.T. it only took one prayer and that was of the individual praying. David was an example.
Abraham alone asked god to consider before destroying Sodom. Jonah prayed for Ninevah. Moses alone asked god for help and god gave him some help to deal with his large task of governing Israel.
It wasn't till the N.T. came along that congregations as "a group" prayed for individuals and circumstances.
God knows what we need BEFORE we ask him according to scripture.....yet he apparently doesn't act until we request his help. I'm glad I wasn't as god is raising my daughter as it would be sad if I only interviened IF she asked me.
Gumby
JH:
Did you honestly believe that praying for someone else or someone praying for you would have a better chance of working than just the person praying alone for himself?
I think they will both have exactly the same effect - except that, the more people involved, the more time wasted.
I'm a little conflicted about that... If you're talking about it working better regarding "god," well, if it takes volume to convince god it's a good idea to answer this prayer, then that's not very equitable is it? What happens if only one person prays for something very worthy, but 300,000 people pray for Dick Cheney to be president? (kidding)
On the other hand, I think there are cases where many prayers create a great deal of goodwill among other people--a good atmosphere if you want to call it that. So in that sense, I suppose many prayers work better.
I just don't think god's sitting up there on his great big floating gold throne saying: "Hmmm, 6 more prayers and this one hits the magic number 10,000, so I'd better answer it.
my $.02
