by Decided 13 Replies latest jw friends
When there are about 50 million prayers being given at any one time, how does God listen to them all? Does he know all of us by name or by a soul or something? Does he have a movie of our lives to judge us at our death? What about about the ones dead, does he remember them all?
I have a hard time trying to understand a God and how he operates.
Ken P.
The only way for a God to hear all prayers is if he is omniscient, which means that he would have to know everything about EVERYTHING at all times. In which case he would already know what you want to tell him and already know how things are going to turn out so the only value in prayer is whatever theraputic or cathartic aspects you get out of it.
The same way an obese elderly man delivers presents to children all over the world in a single night.
Just as Santa Claus can deliver toys to EVERY home on Christmas, God hear can everyone's prayers at once.
Because, "he's God".
EDIT: Dr. Watson beat me to it.
LWT <-------------- Lamer
"This is Spam"
The picture that comes to my mind when I envision an omnipotent creator running the universe while at the same time listening to every creatures prayer and granting wishes to those that have faith in him,,, is that of a schizophrenic.
I picture a god that is going to do something but the voices in his head keep telling him to do something else,, a god who's actions are jerky, and always back tracking while he tries to keep the voices in his head happy and full of praise about his glorious self in a universe that is chaotic because god instead of doing what is best for the universe,, has all these special request from his followers that he is obliged carry out,, like causing some of them win the Lotto, or a football game or help in finding one's car keys, or causing the earth to stop rotation so they can have more daylight so they can destroy more of their enemies who worship another deity(Josua 10:13,14).
So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since (Joshua 10:13,14)
Hello Ken my old friend!
God might hear all prayers, and God might even go one step and listen to all prayers, but most certainly, God doesn't answer all prayers.
In fact, the Bible is quite clear (while not specifically stating so) that prayer is quite unnecessary. Didn't Jesus say that God knows what you need before you even ask it? If that is the case, it is redundant to pray for stuff. And if God knows you are grateful when you are grateful, it is also redundant to pray thanking God for stuff.
Farkel
Remember though, that god, the one of the united states, only needs to handle a small portion of the prayers. Most of the prayers from the planet are directed toward other gods, such as the hindu gods, the moslem, the jewish, the various native ones. Even among christian prayers, there are several differnet gods to do the listening and answering. For instance each christian cult has it's own god. Many baptists have their own, etc. This diversity among the gods makes the burden of YOUR god so much lighter.
S
Don't the Catholics teach that Saints listen to prayers? Their God knows how to delegate.
