Meaning of prayer

by arker 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  arker

  So when I was in and had to say the prayer for a meeting or at home in front of my family it always was a chore. I had to try and remember what other people said or how they phrased things so I could sound soooooo spiritual. You are always told to say a prayer like your face to face with god and it should be so heart felt but it was still me talking to myself with my eyes closed.

  Is this the same with most or did you have some divine face to face talk with god while everyone just happened to be in the room? And by myself, forget about it. Prayer, what prayer. And at dinner I was really thinking "good lord, good meat, thank god let's eat"
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  WTWizard

  I hated it when I got called on to give a prayer, such as for field circus. Jehovah did not answer any of my personal prayers because His purpose was to make my life as miserable as possible while still creating the illusion to others that I still had the obligation to serve Him, and thus I did not want His blessing to be upon the field circus.

  I hated to ask Him to help us to reach the "lost sheep". You see, I actually wanted to see not at homes, doors slammed in our faces, and hours of wasted time trying to hunt for the place. If anything, my "silent prayers" were to Satan that he help confuse the driver so they will have to waste time backtracking or get extra errands or a flat tire, or that he give someone a Big Mac attack in the middle of the street so that the work would be cut short. I also prayed (silently) to Satan each time we were at a door, that the person not be home (and when someone did come, that they would be not interested).

  And prayers at meetings, like the book study, were as bad. I had to pray that Jehovah would open the minds of people to take in those lies, and that the misery would be spread worldwide with people strengthened by opposition. What I really wanted was for a fire alarm to go off and cut the meeting short, for people to start thinking and give a comment like Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear, or for the leaders to start educating instead of persecuting and that people would see zero or negative value in the "prize". More than anything, I wanted the meeting to be cut way short and for service to amount to nothing more than wasting an hour doing nothing and then going home.
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  Cheetos

  Jehovah wants us to approach him with our cares, cause to the extent we roll or push our fears and burdens on him we will find a measure of relief, I think Jehovah rewards those who keep approaching him in prayer with their entreaties cause it shows faith or our proceeding with confidence towards him, and I think he really does like it.
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  Leolaia

  So when I was in and had to say the prayer for a meeting or at home in front of my family it always was a chore. I had to try and remember what other people said or how they phrased things so I could sound soooooo spiritual.

  "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 5:6-8).
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  poppers

  I finally quit praying when I realized that as soon as I prayed there was an assumption that "god" was somehow separate from me, and that no longer felt right or comfortable. Without prayer there is no sense of separation and I feel natural and whole. With prayer there was a division between the one praying, me, and the one prayed to, god - prayer creates distance because it reinforces this idea of separation from everything else. Get rid of this idea, see through the illusion of the "idea of me" and separation and the need for prayer vanishes.
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  darth frosty

  The best closing prayer ever was after a service meeting. Earlier the scripture was used that said 'your word is like an ox goad to me.' Well when this MS got up to give the closing prayer he mentioned how Gods word is like ox tails to us. I bust out laughing.
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  oompa

  Always knew nobody upstairs was listening, but tried to say things others wanted to hear.

  pretty lame....oompa
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  WTWizard

  I always liked it when they baubled the prayer. They might say the name of the person or people that they are praying for wrong (they did that once, and the situation turned worse for a time; to make extra work for the hounders, I will not divulge names). Or, they get stuck with the prayer and are unable to continue.

  The thing I liked best is when the prayer got disrupted. My favorite was for someone with a car stereo to show up and blast some of that beautiful rap music into the Kingdumb Hell during the prayer, with all that beautiful swearing. Or someone gets into a coughing fit and is not able to control it, or a crying baby. Anything to derail the hypnotic suggestion effect. Unfortunately, these incidents are all too rare. Also unfortunately I have never seen them pray for something really good (like the demise of the Watchtower Society) or pray to Jesus (or Satan) instead of Jehovah.

  I did once hear someone pray for peaceful resolution in the Gulf War. This person was hounded afterward for it, because they didn't feel it appropriate for the world to come up with a peaceful solution for its problems on its own. So much for the Prince of Peace in this organization.