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Well, I wanted to share the fact that my prayers have been getting answered lately. I have stuck to the same 3 things for the last few months and slowly, one by one, they are coming to pass. I realize that not all prayers will necessarily come to pass, but the success rate has been much higher than in years previous. There are a few possible reasons.
1. I have been praying for things that are realistic. Not for miraculous cures, growing a limb back, etcetera, but things that have a reasonable chance of occurring.
2. My ratio of thanksgiving to petitioning has been very high. I give thanks multiple times a day, and only ask for things once every day, or every other day or so.
Although I’m being very careful about what I am asking for, I am finding this experience is strengthening my faith in prayer again. Something I need.
I am almost of the mind that I should be asking for things again — after a long period of believing it to be a fruitless exercise…
I am happy that things are going well for you friend. I am even more happy that you are putting forth an attitude of gratitude. I believe that intentional focus on good things can be its own reward.
I’ll echo the praise of gratitude. Prayers for me do seem to be answered more when the heart is filled with gratitude. I also seem to notice prayers answered more when I “expect” an answer. I suppose some would call that faith. I’m not expert on prayer though of course and still feel as though I’m fumbling in the dark with them. But I suppose we all do that on some level. I am glad that you seem to have found some success with your prayers.
I’m also happy for you. Sometimes I wonder in my life if random stuff happens. Pray for it, or not…sometimes good things happen, sometimes not.
If I’m patient and waiting enough … eventually some good finds my way …and it is good to recognize it and be grateful for it in prayers.
Life happens, and my brain tries to assign meaning and purpose to it. Life seems to be more pleasant when I view it with grateful eyes, and look past the rough patches.
How do you explain the adage that “with faith anything is possible?”. I think the fact that our prayers go unanswered even when we exercise strong faith is evidence that faith and accompanying works in many cases is not sufficient to bring to pass answers to prayers. I know it has to be God’s will too, but with that caveat, it becomes more of a guessing game about whether things we pray for will actually come to pass. SilentDawning wrote:
How do you explain the adage that “with faith anything is possible?”. I think the fact that our prayers go unanswered even when we exercise strong faith is evidence that faith and accompanying works in many cases is not sufficient to bring to pass answers to prayers. I know it has to be God’s will too, but with that caveat, it becomes more of a guessing game about whether things we pray for will actually come to pass.
This is one of those areas that I’m fumbling in the dark. As I mentioned before, I have noticed more prayers being answered when I’m trusting that He will answer them. But then of course there are times when a prayer seems to have gotten lost in the mail. One thought that makes a lot of sense to me is that prayer is more about discovering His will rather than requesting our own. Then again, there are places in the scriptures where things are promised if we just ask. I don’t recall seeing the ‘if God wills it’ mentioned as a qualifying statement for a lot of those scriptures.
So I don’t know. I get the feeling prayer is one of those things we are meant to spend a lifetime mastering.
As defined in LDS terms, faith is acting on things for which we hope but can’t see. It is the ACTING ON part that is the foundation of the idea that all things are possible with faith – and not possible without it, since no faith means no acting on it. In other words, it is the belief that we get what we actively pursue.
There are obvious exceptions, and we can pursue unhealthy things, but the concept is the core of nearly every type of philosophy in existence – even, in a real way, things like Buddhist non-attachment.
I have issues with “all” in this context, but I have no problem with the general idea that we tend to get what we pursue, without ceasing, in hope.
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