Answered prayers

Oldhippie

Looking back over many years of prayers, I cannot pinpoint any time when I felt, unequivocally, that I had received a personal response to my prayers. Can anyone here relate any experiences where you have felt that God answered prayers for you?

larc

No, I can't, except for one. The Lord sent me Fred Hall, and now recently he sent, You Know, to me. Life is good!

somebody

yes, OldHippie. I can definately relate. And I too, looked back over the YEARS once they were answered. sometimes it just takes that long for them too be answered, but it certainly lifts a heavy weight off you when the answer finally arrives.

larc,
lol...

peace,
somebody

riz

Oldhippie,

god is way too busy tallying up our field service reports to be bothered with our selfish requests.

No, I've never had any prayers answered either. I discovered that it's up to me to make my dreams realized.

rizzy

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving should not be your sport of choice.

somebody

hi riz!

I discovered that it's up to me to make my dreams realized.

you said more than you realize you did when you said that. when I was confused and was thinking about going back to the kingdom hall, for the sake of my kids, my answer came in a dream that was SO real that I woke up with tears rolling onto my pillow. ( ok...I'm sounding like a fruitcake now) but that IS what lifted all my guilt. that one dream, after YEARS of praying for what the right direction to move in was.

peace,
somebody

XJWBill

Good question, Oldhippie. I wrestle with that one myself.

I guess the key word is "unequivocally."

For example, when I (or someone I love) embark upon a journey, I always pray for God's protection en route. Actually, I do that every time I leave for work in the morning. And to date, thank God, that prayer has always been answered. But I suppose an atheist could say, well, you're a careful driver and most planes land safely anyway.

As far as truly providential, miraculous, only-by-God's-grace answers, I have to say there have been just barely a handful I can point to over the last 25 years, at times of truly extreme need.

I've also had one or two moments of seemingly divine presence, insight, comforting, I'm not sure what to call it--a moment of knowing, rather than merely believing, that God is real and here with me.

Writing about them helps me remember those moments and those answers, which come years apart. In the everyday drudgery of life, I tend to forget them.

In the opposing column, I can set all kinds of prayers seemingly ignored. Sometimes, as Garth Brooks sings, "some of God's greatest gifts . . . are unanswered prayers." Other times, it's crushingly disappointing.

At times I've gotten very angry with God over His seeming indifference to my earnest pleas. But I've reached a point in life where I realize that I just have to get along the best I can with what I have--regardless of answers or non-answers.

Sometimes I get very disgusted with testimonies in Christian publications about "Oh, God has blessed me so much, all these material things, lots of money, houses, cars, great jobs, etc., etc.," and I wonder what the heck I'm doing wrong to be so left out. Then I am tempted to fall back into the old WT guilt trip of "well, you really aren't spiritual enough, you don't pray enough, read enough, contribute and serve enough," etc.

But then I realize all believers through the centuries have struggled with this question of prayer. C. S. Lewis, hardly a slouch in Christian good works, discusses the problem nicely in "Letters to Malcolm."

So I have to conclude, regardless of my moment-to-moment spiritual condition, that the problem is not just with me. God's running the world, I'm not. All I know is, He loves me and has a place for me in that house with many mansions, in the land of light and joy. I just believe--and accept, with thanks.

As the old song goes, "Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine, we'll understand it all by and by."

What about the rest of you?

Bill

"If we all loved one another as much as we say we love God, I reckon there wouldn't be as much meanness in the world as there is."--from the movie Resurrection (1979)

TMS

Is this "Oldhippie" of Witnet fame? Welcome, my brother!

Actually, it was an unanswered prayer that was most revealing for me. My mindset, at the time, was along the lines of: "no matter what it is we ask according to his will, he hears us." My son was making his second or third appeal for reinstatement and I was pacing the floor, imploring Jehovah to move the elders to deal with him in a kindly way. I felt it inappropriate to ask for reinstatement, but I thought to ask for kindness would certainly be "according to his will."

My prayer was, to say the least, unanswered and that was extremely unsettling for me.

TMS

larc

Prayer,

I like one phrase about prayer: "Be careful what you pray for you, might get it."

patio34

I like Mark Twain's take on it in "Letters from the Earth":

"He prays to Him, and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea? Fills his prayers with crude and bald and florid flatteries of Him, and thinks He sits and purrs over these extravagancies and enjoys them. He prays for help, and favor, and protection, every day; and does it with hopefulness and confidence, too, although no prayer of his has ever been answered. The daily affront, the daily defeat, do not discourage him, he goes on praying just the same."

Pat

somebody

I'm really enjoying this topic!

larc,

"Be careful what you pray for you, might get it."

that's so true. same goes for wishing.

patio,

"He prays to Him, and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea? Fills his prayers with crude and bald and florid flatteries of Him, and thinks He sits and purrs over these extravagancies and enjoys them. He prays for help, and favor, and protection, every day; and does it with hopefulness and confidence, too, although no prayer of his has ever been answered. The daily affront, the daily defeat, do not discourage him, he goes on praying just the same."

A lot to be said about that too. we all have to believe in something. if our prayers are answered, or out wishes come true, we need to believe that things happen for a reason. when ya think about it, what is the reason? Is the reason "ourselves"?

XJWBill,

What you have said leaves me unable to even respond. ya hit home on the journey of life itself.

peace,
somebody

Answered prayers

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