- Dec 13, 2015
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Please understand that I don't mean to sound like a troll on any of these questions. They are all honest and genuine questions from the heart. I honestly have been apart from God for so long that I don't know how to properly pray. Both my wife and I could use help on this. My wife has only prayed a few times in her life when she was Catholic as a kid. But she's always believed in Christ from the moment she was born. I on the other hand, was also raised Catholic but never shared my mother's faith so I didn't bother with praying much. I prayed sometimes but I still feel like as a kid I prayed the wrong way because I used to pray to Mary and to the saints and all of the other Catholic ways which I don't feel comfortable doing now as a protestant.
But yeah, I was an atheist for most of my life so I missed out on the whole "How to pray" thing. I know prayer is just talking to God and telling him about how you feel and thanking/praising him but what's expected of us when we pray? Would God care about the tiniest details of my life? Like say I want to pray about playing Video Games and tell him how happy they make me feel or tell him that I want to get to a certain level or something? Lol An honest question that I'm really embarrassed to ask. Let me explain. I don't want God to not care about what I have to say or if I'm committing a sin against him I don't want him to be angry at me or whatever. Or if I want to share with him that since I never achieved the goals in my life that I'm semi angry with him? I'm mostly angry at my dad but mostly because my dad physically abused me when I was growing up and told me that I would never amount to anything and basically that I was a loser. I've told God multiple times that I want to let this anger go in my life because God probably didn't want me to achieve the goals of my life and I should accept it. God also gave me my father for a reason. Maybe so that I would love my heavenly father more. Who knows.
Should we get in the habit of praying daily to God? I know some Christians would give varying answers to that question so maybe I can't be helped on that one. Does God hear our prayers in our thoughts or do we have to pray out loud? Would God hear my wife and I if we started praying together or is prayer supposed to be done by us individually in private like Jesus seems to command in Matthew 6:6? Do I pray to the Trinity or just to Jesus/God the Father the Holy Spirit alone?
Scripture pretty much says to pray to God the Father only but yet many Christians pray to the Trinity why is that when never in the New Testament do we see examples of Prayer to Jesus or the HS and Jesus never prayed to the HS? It makes sense why he wouldn't pray to himself but there's still another part of him that's fully and equally God and equivalent to himself so why didn't he pray to him to help guide him in his earthly mission?
If I just say "Dear God". Or just simply "God" when I start my prayer does that mean I'm praying to the Trinity or to a random false God? Does God know the desire of our hearts when we pray? Sounds like a stupid question but it's sincere. Like say if I pray "Dear God" does God know that I intend to pray to him or to pray to the Trinity? I really don't want him to think that I'm praying to some false God.
How do you overcome fear of rejection and the awkwardness of prayer? My wife feels extremely guilty and like God will smite her down any second because she's barely prayed to him. Nor do we really live for God and are just Christians on paper (That's changing).
I think that's about it for my questions for now. I'll probably ask more as this thread gets bigger.
But yeah, I was an atheist for most of my life so I missed out on the whole "How to pray" thing. I know prayer is just talking to God and telling him about how you feel and thanking/praising him but what's expected of us when we pray? Would God care about the tiniest details of my life? Like say I want to pray about playing Video Games and tell him how happy they make me feel or tell him that I want to get to a certain level or something? Lol An honest question that I'm really embarrassed to ask. Let me explain. I don't want God to not care about what I have to say or if I'm committing a sin against him I don't want him to be angry at me or whatever. Or if I want to share with him that since I never achieved the goals in my life that I'm semi angry with him? I'm mostly angry at my dad but mostly because my dad physically abused me when I was growing up and told me that I would never amount to anything and basically that I was a loser. I've told God multiple times that I want to let this anger go in my life because God probably didn't want me to achieve the goals of my life and I should accept it. God also gave me my father for a reason. Maybe so that I would love my heavenly father more. Who knows.
Should we get in the habit of praying daily to God? I know some Christians would give varying answers to that question so maybe I can't be helped on that one. Does God hear our prayers in our thoughts or do we have to pray out loud? Would God hear my wife and I if we started praying together or is prayer supposed to be done by us individually in private like Jesus seems to command in Matthew 6:6? Do I pray to the Trinity or just to Jesus/God the Father the Holy Spirit alone?
Scripture pretty much says to pray to God the Father only but yet many Christians pray to the Trinity why is that when never in the New Testament do we see examples of Prayer to Jesus or the HS and Jesus never prayed to the HS? It makes sense why he wouldn't pray to himself but there's still another part of him that's fully and equally God and equivalent to himself so why didn't he pray to him to help guide him in his earthly mission?
If I just say "Dear God". Or just simply "God" when I start my prayer does that mean I'm praying to the Trinity or to a random false God? Does God know the desire of our hearts when we pray? Sounds like a stupid question but it's sincere. Like say if I pray "Dear God" does God know that I intend to pray to him or to pray to the Trinity? I really don't want him to think that I'm praying to some false God.
How do you overcome fear of rejection and the awkwardness of prayer? My wife feels extremely guilty and like God will smite her down any second because she's barely prayed to him. Nor do we really live for God and are just Christians on paper (That's changing).
I think that's about it for my questions for now. I'll probably ask more as this thread gets bigger.