• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Does Prayer Make a Difference?

M

Maple Leaf Angus

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
1,823
Location
Southern Ontario
Just got finished perusing a dynamite book called "Prayer". It's another terrific read from the "pen" (keyboard?) of Philip Yancey, who happens to be the most relevant Christian author today, IMHO.

It will stimulate your thinking about prayer and perhaps leave you with as many questions as answers. It left me thinking that perhaps there are few who ever get beyond the superficial when they pray.
 
Yancey's book sounds interesting. Thanks for the idea.

Does prayer make a difference? Yup, as long as you are asking God for what agrees with His plan for you.
That takes a WHOLE different attitude :!: Think I need an attitude adjustment.
 
Kind of like the old standbye answer of God always answers prayers but sometimes the answer is No eh NR?


My mother in law is a pastor and in the 14 years I have been with her daughter I have had many a talk about God and prayer with her.. Always interesting, perhaps this book would be a good Christmas gift for her.
 
IL Rancher said:
Kind of like the old standbye answer of God always answers prayers but sometimes the answer is No eh NR?


My mother in law is a pastor and in the 14 years I have been with her daughter I have had many a talk about God and prayer with her.. Always interesting, perhaps this book would be a good Christmas gift for her.
Click to expand...

And sometimes we later learn why NO was the best answer for us.
 
This reminds me of the Garth Brooks song.."Thank God for unanswered prayers" So true,God knows where we are heading and although we feel our direction should go one way HE knows better. I know I've thanked God for unanswered prayers :nod:
 
nr said:
IL Rancher said:
Kind of like the old standbye answer of God always answers prayers but sometimes the answer is No eh NR?


My mother in law is a pastor and in the 14 years I have been with her daughter I have had many a talk about God and prayer with her.. Always interesting, perhaps this book would be a good Christmas gift for her.
Click to expand...

And sometimes we later learn why NO was the best answer for us.
Click to expand...

Oh absolutely NR.. Absolutely... Many of the greatest disapointments in my life have led to great opportunities and I can't help but think there is a reason for that.
 
Northern Rancher said:
Ohh you meant little nr _I couldn't figure out what you were talking about lol.
Click to expand...

Yeah, how come you get to be BIG nr and I only get to be little tiny nr, huh? :wink: Maybe cause I'm only a fake rancher, possibly? 8)


A friend of our has an unanswered prayer story from his life- don't know whether I ever posted it or not but I've always remembered it. He was raised on a northern NY farm and yearned for a bike for Christmas. His dad was a silent, dour sort of man, never showed emotion and I think his mother also sounded similar. Christmas morning came- no bike. Instead a mower. Huge disappointment for our friend. But after many years he saw the loving wisdom in his father's choice for two reasons. One was their very steep driveway emptied down on a roadway where cars drove very fast around a blind curve and he'd probably have been killed as kids tend to think speed not safety. Secondly, with the mower he was able to earn lots of money over the years working for neighbors which put him through college amongst other jobs like delivering mail. Thirdly, and this has nothing to do with his bike-less state but shows his father's love, our friend had no sense of direction or what to do in life. His father who knew his abilities to the core, sent in a college application for him, steered him into engineering where he thrived and eventually became head of an engineering department which suited his gifts. Doesn't that mirror God's love for each of us? I believe the key here was that our friend trusted his father's judgement or at least accepted it as best for him rather than fighting it and bullheadedly going his own direction.
 
I believe in prayers. I also believe that a lot of it has to do with who is praying. Example My Grandmother seems to have more pull with God than I do so say if one of my children or horses get sick I always pray for them but I always get my Grandmother to pray for them as well.
 
I feel pray,is time intimitly spent with the god of ones choice....Does it work was the question,the answer to me is....Does it really matter if it works?.....We can choose to believe that we decide our own fates or that they are pre ordained....by praying we put our faith in God to answer our prayers....I believe God gave us will,and that is what we use to help in times of need....God gave us all freedom of choice,so to answer a pray may be working against our very being......But to will something from inside your heart,is the tool he gave us all to fight with,when all thats left is hope....

My thoughts are God is about the living of a life and welcomeing us home at lifes end....He will judge not by who we are but by what we do with who we are.....His tests will be many,and our souls will,will be called upon for both ourselfs and our fellow man....I look at prayer as time alone with God,straighting my life roads and strengthing my inner will..I do not see God changing anothers destiny because I ask him too,but i will send as much strength from my soul as I can to help others in need...
 
I think that we don't always get the answer we want, but may get the grace to see that what we wanted is not right for us.
But I do have a story about my cat, Maxmillian, Max will be 11 next March. 4 years ago in August, he got sick on a Friday. On saturday he was still sick, and hadn't been eating. On Monday morning I took him to the vet and they checked him and sent a blood sample in to see if he had Feline Luekemia Virus. On Wednesday, Max still hadn't eaten, and the blood test came back positive for the virus. The vet called and said they could give him interferin treatments each day for a week and then I could take him home for a week and then back for another week of treatments. They didn't know if it would help. maybe make him worse, but thought it would make him feel pretty good for the time he had left.
So that night, Wednesday, August 14, I was watching TV and turned to the EWTN channel and they were talking about Maxmillian Kolbe, who the Catholic Church had recently declared a saint. ( Maxmillian Kolbe was a Natzi prisoner and had taken place of married man who was comdemed to die by starvtion.) So I said, "Maximillian, my cat, Maximillian is about do die, and will starve, and you know how that is, so put in a good word for him"
Went to check on the cat on Saturday, and they said he had eaten the next morning (Thursday). The cat was sleeping in a little plastic tub and I called to him and he came to me. I took Max home on Tuesday and he hasn't been back to the vet or been sick since.
He did learn about canned cat food while there and since then is not satisfied with anything else, and complains if it is not fish.
 
I believe in the power of prayer. My mother had Polio, it was pretty common in Alberta when she was a child. Her leg had twisted and was kind of going behind her back. (not exactly sure how to describe it other than it was HORRIBLY twisted) The elders at the church prayed for her and did a laying on of the hands. Within a few weeks it was straightened out. The only noticible thing now is that it is about an inch shorter than the other and her knee is very large. Coincedence or Prayer ???? You decide.
 
Ever hear that expression "Man makes plans and prays/ and God laughs"? This isnt a bad thing necessarily. I can look back at a lot of bad things that have happened and I can see where a lot of good has come out of them.

Life has taught me that if its not meant to be its not going to happen. Doesnt matter how hard you work at it.
Im a fatalist, when our time is up, its up.
I used to think that we had control over things but the older I get the more I realize how little control we have.
I also believe that the devil helps his own. But I have known a lot of people who were blessed with everything but yet they still were not happy or satisfied.
 
I would have to say that opening your heart to christ has alot to do with prayer, being able to see Christ's work....

nr helped me see God's work and her guidence helped when my grandmother's dishes were stolen.....
 
I definitely believe in prayer.

Prayer often changes us more than God.

We are trapped in an imperfect body with selfishness innate in our survival. That makes it hard to be in sinc with God and his plan. We are mortal, he is not.

"My ways are not your ways"

"My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways," {cf, Isa 55:8}. That is what is so difficult. God is sovereign. He is not a man that he should act like we act. There are dimensions of the problems which he sees that we do not remotely imagine. There are possibilities and opportunities in every situation that we cannot conceive of. So we must wait and quietly trust, knowing that he is working out something.

Prayer helps us deal with this reality.
 
many years ago I worked in a service station and was waiting on a large truck, standing on the front bumper I slipped and fell back landing on my bent ankle.
They gathered me up and took me to the hospital, had to cut the laces off the boot my foot was so swolen, after xray's they taped the ankle and told me I was off for two weeks. then back for more xray's.
I stopped at the station on my way home,there I met some customers who asked of my injuries they were from THE SISTERS OF ST'MARTHA and were steady customers.
They said that evening at their prayer meeting they would ask for a speedy recovery.

WELL the next morning when I woke and stepped out of bed the packing the DR had put on the day before fell off, and I walked without a limp of any kind I went to work and they made me go to the hospital and have it checked out after Xray's they all stood around shaking their heads.

There was no sign of any injury on the new xray.

The nuns said they had all prayed for my recovery, they had a name for it and I cant remember what they called it

AS my Mother used to say its not that I dont belive "Ill give them the benifit of doubt"

redcountry
________
apple games
 

Latest posts

Back
Top