how then to pray? (page 2)

transhuman68

We are all gods.

It's OK if you want to talk to yourself sometimes...

Perry

I pray to the Lord. Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He said ALL power in heaven and earth was given to him. (All means just what it means ...ALL)

This was said after he rose from the dead, that's pretty impressive.

My advice is to read Hebrews chapter one over and over in a real translation until you get it. One theif being executed on Calvary Hill turned to Jesus and asked something of him, and it was granted to him. The other did not and received what he believed. Just do the same as the first thief and you can't go wrong. It's not rocket science. My unindoctrinated 7 and 9 year old totally get it.

I like simple things....such beauty.

FlyingHighNow

but for me I really feel like I need god in my life

And billions feel just as you do.

I stopped praying when I was 14. I wasn't a JW at the time. I had something huge happen that just stopped me in my tracks and made me question everything about God.

Later, I found prayer very difficult during my time as a JW. I didn't pray very much because of that. When I became inactive, I rarely ever prayed.

When I began to understand that the WTBTS was wrong, 9 years or so after I left physically, I found myself in your shoes concerning prayer. My solution was The Great Spirit. My father's maternal grandfather was full blooded Native American. Dad often spoke of The Great spirit. I began to send out my prayers to The Great Spirit. That felt right for me. Now, I don't address prayers to any god in particular. I do pray, usually daily. I'm a universalist, so I don't believe that God is legalistic about prayer, who anyone prays to or how its done.

Band on the Run

I had no religion after the Witnesses. Through it all, I was drawn to Jesus. A series of events led me to an Episcopal church. I went thru motions in church. The Prayer Book had wonderful prayers. I felt I was outside nice things b/c of the Witnesses. When I became so ill with pain that all my doctors told my mom I would commit suicide, I prayed in earnest. It wasn't important that any external event happen. I meditated and constructed my own service with the Prayer Book. Somewhere in some former English colony someone else was praying. I attended special services for healing. The prayers united me with others. In fact, I asked the priest to pray for pain relief only if God wanted it. The priest refused to qualify the prayer. The Meditation part was the Relazation Response by Benson with a Russian Orthdox prayer to anchor the breathing. I was warned to never pray for too long so I set a kitchen timer. My brain waves changed. I took notes in a journal. When I looked back, I expected to read nonsense. It was not nonsense. I felt more creative.

FlyingHighNow

I like this one:

Grandfather Great Spirit

All over the world the faces
of living ones are alike.

With tenderness they have
come up out of the ground.

Look upon your children
that they may face the winds
And walk the good road to the Day of Quiet.

Grandfather Great Spirit
Fill us with the Light.
Give us the strength to understand,
And the eyes to see.

Teach us to walk the soft Earth
as relatives to all that live.

You can find more at this website:

Native American Poems And Prayers

http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Wisdom/poemsidx.html

FlyingHighNow

Band, I enjoyed reading your comments about prayer. There are some good prayers in the prayer book.

cultBgone

Hi, purr - I think especially right after we leave the enforced routine of meetings and prayer, there's a huge void that we struggle to fill. That immediate lack of structure can leave you scrambling to figure out what to do. I continued to pray for a long time but at some point my thinking changed. It's different for each person so do what feels right for YOU. Many hugs.

galaxie

Does an architect pray that the material he chooses will hold up the building when it has not been proven that said material is applicable?

Sadly for some delusion can last a lifetime.

Is there comfort in prayer?

The architect was not only sorry but culpable when the building collapsed.

Moral......affirm your life decisions with sound evidence .

Your life is ultimately in YOUR OWN hands.

Best wishes.

sowhatnow

think about it, the scriptures do not have many prayers do they? jesus always went off by himself,

and there was no real evidence of any apostles or jesus leading in prayer, its assumed.

prayer in the bible to me for those people in those days was ' meditation' its the calming down of ones self, sorting out feelings, and letting go of the less inportant problems and dealing with the more important ones.

if prayer helps, then by all means pary any way you wish.

but cofty does have a valid point, one that i just yesterday spoke to my husband about.

why would an almighty God sit idly by and allow an innocent infant to be beaten by a drug addict, why would he sit by and allow a child to under go abuse from a molesting father? or sit by and watch a wackjob shoot an innocent girl in the head in front of her mother.

or sit idly by and let men shoot and butcher innocent animals for thier tusks, and make them extinct never ot be alive again.

why not give those animals a signal to run away and hide?

he very easily could give that wicked person, a heat attack and solve the immediate problem.

but he does nothing. and were supposed to believe God intercedes to 'save' foolish people from getting killed while deliberately doing dangerouse stunts?

if there are supposed to be guardian angels? who is the privlaiged person who gets one?

so here we have so many unanswered things that can occupy our time, that will result in little but a waste of time and emotions.

i think a lot of us need to stop it. and try to do something about the world we live in. including me.

FlyingHighNow

You can pray, if it's what you want to do and it makes you feel better. You can also "try to do something about the world we live in".

how then to pray?

Grandfather Great Spirit

Native American Poems And Prayers

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