[Hylife]

Quote by: sdbest Hylife, your complaint shouldn't be with me, but with the thousands of Christians and church leaders who participated in the research. Obviously they took a different view of prayer than yours. I'm just bringing you the news. Don't crucify me for that. At any rate, the fact appears to be that some prayers don't work. Maybe Christians should sort these differences out among themselves before they start "spreading the word." Regards S.

I wasn't trying to attack you, I agree completely with the notion that Christians need to sort things out. If their were better Christians, there'd also be more of them.

(Not to say I'm better than anyone; I've probably negatively impacted people towards Christ as well.)

Quote by: CoffeeSaint True. And yet, physical gifts are asked for, and since millions of people are starving, they are not always granted. Are those millions of people not Christian? Do they not know the Lord's Prayer? Or is their prayer ineffective for some reason?

It's possible they're not Christian, but instead of assuming the worst, the most positive explanation (if they are Christian) is that it is better for their spiritual well-being. So they die of starvation. Bg deal when compared to an eternity of peace with God.

That doesn't make sense to me. A prayer is a request, at least some of the time; you go on to describe prayer as a conversation with god, as a sort of meditation or confession; that I understand. But those sorts of prayers can't be seen as being answered, as there isn't any question. Perhaps one is asking for peace, and gets that peace? Any road, the sorts of prayers that one presumably makes when one is suffering are prayers for relief from the suffering. Those prayers are not answered. I cannot see an answer that is not an actual response to the request made as an answer; it would be akin to being asked for directions and getting the response "There's a family of ducks that live in that pond." It's nice to hear, but it's not an answer to the question. Similarly, if I am dying of a painful cancer, and I ask for relief from my pain and get, instead, spiritual peace, my pain hasn't been relieved, so my prayer hasn't been answered. If I ask why I have to be the one to suffer, and I get the answer, "Because god wills it so," I also don't believe my prayer has been answered -- that's the biggest cop-out in history.

Yeah, because God wills it so, and because it's what;s best for you (if you're a Christian). Prayer isn't to get things. It's to attune us to the will of God, so that we can understand why things happen. For example, if you pray for a new car, God's either going to give it to you or not; through prayer, hopefully, he'll help you understand why.

Why? As an omniscient being, he already knows what's going on; as beings with free will who are supposed to make choices, we shouldn't constantly be asking for help and advice. Why are we supposed to pray continuously?

You are completely wrong about not asking for help and advice. We should ALWAYS be seeking God's guidance, asking him to help us. Also, God loves us, he wants to here what we have to say to him, and he wants to help us grow spiritually through communication.