Protestants pray all the time like Catholics. I may be incorrect on this But I don't think most Protestants have occasion prayers with the exception of things like "The Lords Prayer" and the "Serenity Prayer". I could be wrong about this as I am not a Protestant. But praying is something I have never seen discussed in a how to do sense. I don't think it matters, personally, but I do think that there is power in in number and getting everyone on the same page.
I would never be so arrogant as to say how some one chooses to pray is incorrect, because sincere prayer is the best prayer. So there are negatives to occasional prayer as if just going through the motions. Prayer is never really discussed on blogs. I haven't said the rosary in years and most of my prayer is off the cuff, but it is nice to have occasion prayer as well. Just because someone else wrote it don't mean the one saying the prayer is not being heart felt. I was curious as to how my readers pray (method). Some may say the Holy Spirit leads me in prayer, which I like those that just come to you.
But it is easy to pray for the wrong things. I remember when I was a child of about 6 or 7 praying for God to give me a motorcycle and I explained down to every last detail what it should look like. I told God to put it under the tree in the back yard and I would go out and get it the next morning. Of course I was disappointed when it was not there. It seemed to change the way I prayed the first portion of my life as well.
As a child I was confused about God and what he was or wasn't, I just heard the grownups saying we will pray for person A to be healed, or person B to find a job. No one ever took the time to tell me what prayer is for, I had to figure that one out mostly on my own. It was after 6 or 7 that I realized God wasn't prayer vending machine. Then later on I figured he just don't listen (time in the desert that everyone has).
Prayer like anything needs to be developed like muscle. Why do I never see Christian sites ever addressing prayer and its utility. I just hear we need to pray for this or that or so-in-so. Some go so far as to say that if you don't get healed of a disease you just didn't have enough faith then on the other side of the spectrum you have God isn't listening.
We all pray who are Christian, but have we asked ourselves what it is about? Do we know personally why we do it? I could make this post so long that everyone would give up on it. So I will stop here. There is a comment section if you have something to say on addressing prayer. Seems everyone has a different opinion on its utility. People need not only tell their children how to pray but what prayer is, and most of all what it isn't.
I don't do it enough. Sometimes I do it half assed. Like when I'm thinking about something and I say to God in my head, "oh yeah God, that" I'd say I'm praying without actually forming the words, if I can describe it. Thinking about it now, that is perhaps a little disrepectful to the Almight Creator of the universe to not even take the time to make it formal.
ReplyDeleteMy wife was healed of something while a two people put their hands on her and prayed after a Christian event. So as often as it seems it doesn't work, sometimes it does. And thanks to God for that.
My daughter the other day said she was angry because she was praying to Jesus that she wouldn't feel sick and He wasn't doing anything. The best I could come up with is that sometimes we eat bad things and He needs to let us throw up. I worry about her. She is very intelligent and seems to already be asking questions I don't know how to answer.
There are no easy answers, Giraffe.
ReplyDeletePaul said we ought to pray constantly. I think this is the reciprocal of Jeremiah 31:34:
ReplyDeleteAnd no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
We're under a new covenant. I think what we call the 'conscience' is the Holy Spirit.
I think what we call the 'conscience' is the Holy Spirit.
ReplyDeleteThat's not a bad definition. I can't argue with it. Matter f fact I could expound upon it, but will wait for others and their thoughts. We are "children" of God and I mean "children."
Outlaw,
ReplyDeleteI saw your request at my blog and I am thinking on it.
WB,
I believe Walt Disney was a Congregationalist Christian, but I don't know much about that belief system.