Praying for faith?
Like in "fighting for peace"?
A Contradiction?
by Yan Bibiyan 38 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Yan Bibiyan
jgnat:
There's a german proverb, act as if no prayer will do and pray as if no act will do.
All fine and dandy, but it presupposes a result as the outcome of prayer.
What about prayers that go unanswered?
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Tater-T
tater, they must ask lol of cousre not, but yahweh is the source of life and he provides.
Did yahweh just forget about these ones.. or lack of prayer..
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Yan Bibiyan
Come on Tater, god is love... what does he have to do with this horrible tragedy...
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EdenOne
Perhaps you should spend some time investigating Panantheism and Open Theism.
In these conceptions, God is indeed influenced by prayer and isn't neither omniscient nor omnipotent (at least not in the traditional way we have been taught), and is always learning and adapting.
Eden
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unstopableravens
tater: did you or i forget about them either?
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jgnat
Yin, people buy lottery tickets all the time even though there is no certain outcome. Why do they do it? It can't hurt...
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jgnat
There is an elderly gentleman in town who is losing his wife slowly through a series of mini-strokes. Her progressive disability is very distressing for him, and he can't let her go. Every time I see him at the store, at the hospital, or in church, I ask how he is doing, I offer to pray, and I pat his shoulder. I tease out a smile. The prayer is a bridge to caring and connection. He calls me his "little prayer warrior". The last time I saw him he told me my prayers weren't working. It was the opening he needed to talk.
We lost a great poster here to hodgkin's lymphoma I believe. I did not pray for a cure, but rather for an end to the estrangement with his daughters. My prayer was answered.
With or without God, these prayers help.
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jeremiah18:5-10
The notion in the bible is that prayer is an act of worship and the very same book indicates that god only answers the prayers or acts in love to preserve those who worship him. Therefore the act of praying is more about submission than trying to get what you want or need, according to the bible. Its only about what you want as long as what you want or need is in harmony with what god wants or needs. By that reasoning then prayer would be necessary if for nothing more than an act of worship showing complete submission to god. So, with that being said, I think its less of an contradiction and more of a conondrum, because your happiness and satisfaction is totally irrelevant.
