by minimus 42 Replies latest jw friends
Jesus is usually addressed as I address the Father.
Well since we learned all these years that the Father told us to listen to the SON,Since we read the NAME ABOVE all others was Jesus . Its about time we started to do this eh Jeff.???? I am with you ...Finally!!! we listened to the Mediator NOT the 144.000 Or the BIG O.....That personal relationship....is great with me.....
Pharoah once asked: "Who is Jehovah that I should listen to him?" According to the Bible he soon found out. Thomas once said: "Unless I see the nails in his hands and feet and put my hand in his side, I will not believe." According to the Bible he soon got his wish. I need some personal evidence from Jehovah, Jesus, God, Her etc. in order to pray to it. None has been forthcoming, so how can I pray to someone I have never met or experienced. I don't pray anymore. I was almost killed in an accident and still I just let it work itself out, not thinking of some power to get me out of dying. 'It is what it is', as the saying goes. What is it? I don't have the slightest idea anymore. I just take it one day at a time now. Millions of people around the world are praying every day to some form of God and still look at the mess the world is in. Is he even listening to all the cries of the suffering ones. Hello! anybody home?
I don't have an answer for those who say that they get answers every day when they pray to their "God". Who am I to question the ways of the silent "God". Thomas where are you! ???
Blueblades.
Yes I pray. One of the few things that the Dubs taught is that we should pray to the Father, who I believe is Yahweh. I just don't believe that He's blessing a publishing company in New York that has screwed millions of people over.
I am in the same boat with LT, Honesty and Grace. ALL my prayers to Jesus have always been answered. Just like he promised, "whatever you ask me, I will do it" - and he has. He is the head of the church and that is the Father's arrangement. We have access to the father through Jesus only.
I remember the first time I prayed to Jesus. I was so nervous that I would be struck dead or something. The WT makes it a big sin to pray to Jesus and like LT said - insist you dial a wrong number. (nice way of putting it). Anyway, I asked Jehovah first to "allow" me to approach his son, then I prayed to Jesus to help me.
The scenario was this; I was locked in my bedroom with a bottle of pills ready to end my life. My two young kids (9 and 11 at the time) were downstairs playing. I was not thinking rationally as I would NEVER in a million years hurt my kids. My hubby was packed and ready to leave me, my friends were shunning me, I was confused about my faith and felt hurt and alone in the world. Anyway I prayed to Jesus asking simply for help out of the confusing thoughts in my head and for a shoulder to lean on. This thru very intense tears I may add. You cannot imagine the stress I felt unless you have ever gotten to that point in your life yourself.
At that moment, while still praying, I felt a warm calming feeling come down from my head to my feet. First, it felt like someone touched the top of my head, (like a hand on my head) then It felt like someone wrapped me totally in a warming blanket. It was Sooo comforting! The thoughts of suicide left, I felt very calm. That night I told my hubby if he wanted to leave to go ahead and do it, that I would be o.k. Turns out he didn't want to leave for real anyway, he was trying to scare me back into the kh. It didn't work and I Da'd that same week.
This was my first prayer the Lord answered and was not the last. Since that day, I never felt alone anymore. My hubby does not believe my experience. It chalks it up to emotion only. But my life has done a 100% turn for the better since that day. I am stronger in my faith, have more love in my heart for all people, and have not been depressed since then, and have resisted joining another cult that my hubby wanted to join right after leaving the WT. You can say my eyes are now "wide open" and cannot be decieved again. For these reasons and some others, I believe that Jesus came to me in my darkest hour and gave me HIS shoulder to lean on and will believe this for the rest of my life. Hope some of you here experience the same some day in your lives some day.
P.S. looking back on my last year in the tower, Jesus tried coming to me many times but I would not allow him to. Finally I surrendered and what happened next in my life is what was I call "my miracle". I was so moved by my experience I wrote a poem called "what I want to say to the Lord - when I see him in person". Any of you believers out there want a copy - just pm me. Lilly
Not in a billion years...it would violate every shred of rational volition that I possess. To me, this would be tantamount to talking to a plant and expecting some assistance.
I prefer to talk to real human beings capable of providing an answer rather than deafening silence. When I'm stressed out I turn to friends and family for advice, comfort or support.
Alternatively, I consult the works of my favourite philosphers or poets for advice and inspiration. If that fails, I take a trip to the art gallery or a walk through the forest.
For the record everybody is constantly "praying"....its called "internal dialogue" and it the minds method of self-regulation and cognitive self-referencing. Some people simpy choose to
direct this internal dialogue to a region of their own mind that they refer to as "God" , "Jesus", etc. Regardless, its all self-referential and internally generated.
Could praying to Jesus or "God" simply be mind over matter??? If you WANT to believe in anything, it's possible!
I pray to Jesus.
Do you think it would do any good to pray to win the lotto Outaservice? I dont think I have had one prayer answered.
No one has ever convinced me that they ever had a prayer answered.
If I cracked probably. Praying used to be such a rote reflex I used to get pissed off when I would automatically do so before going to bed without meaning to. I think that reflex is long past but there is stress regression.
