Not sure if this is the right place for this - What is the point of praying after terrible events?

[Dave RP]

We were all absolutely shocked and appalled by the terrible events yesterday in Las Vegas. In discussing the incident with my work colleagues, someone said that, as usual, everyone is praying for the victims, praying for America etc. and we wondered what possible good is praying AFTER the event? I bet lots of those people caught up in the massacre were praying as hard as they could whilst bullets were raining down, and that didn't do anything.

If God is influenced by praying, why does he allow these things to happen whilst prayers are heading his way, and if he isn't influenced by praying, why bother? What is God going to do after the event when he didn't do anything during the event?

I went with my Christian girlfriend to church on Sunday and they spread the prayers liberally around - world peace, homelessness, hunger, Syria, refugees etc and on Monday we still had war, famine, homelessness, hunger and the poor people of Syria were still being killed relentlessly. Every church in the world prays for similar things every week, yet nothing changes.

Can anyone help explain what prayers are supposed to do and why God seems to ignore the biggest stuff?

 

[SkyWriting]

Can anyone help explain what prayers are supposed to do and why God seems to ignore the biggest stuff?

Prayer changes you and gets you up to speed on what
God has already done for you and how He has already
answered your prayers.
Prayers do not change the world, they change you and
help you grow in faith. There is never a wrong time for prayer.

 

[Dave RP]

Prayer changes you and gets you up to speed on what
God has already done for you and how He has already
answered your prayers.
Prayers do not change the world, they change you and
help you grow in faith. There is never a wrong time for prayer.

In which case why pray for the end to (for example) famine in Africa?

 

[A_Thinker]

Prayer changes you and gets you up to speed on what
God has already done for you and how He has already
answered your prayers.
Prayers do not change the world, they change you and
help you grow in faith. There is never a wrong time for prayer.

As the descendent of slaves, I'm not sure that I would agree the prayer serves no purpose. When I look at where the world has come morally, there is no argument that evil doesn't have as much sway in the world as it once did. When I consider that, only a few hundred years ago, world powers were plundering the resources of other people, either killing them outright ... or leaving them to die.

In my years, I have witnessed efforts, large and small, to provide for ... and empower ... the weakest among us. This is a new dynamic, particularly on a large scale. Despite the efforts of some, we are striving to become one big family in the world, ... loving and assisting one another.

Of course, these efforts are not 100% effective, ... such that pain, sickness, hunger, want, and need are eliminated from the human experience, ... but we seem to be striving to get there.

There is, either, something within the human spirit (of some), ... or Something/Someone who leads/guides/encourages us to make these steps forward in our morality. Thank God for whatever that is.

Of course, ... there remain incidents of great evil, like what happened in Las Vegas, ... or Paris, ... or London, ... or Rwanda, ... or Bangledesh ...

OTOH, there are efforts to minimize/mitigate these outbreaks as successfully as we can.

 

[A_Thinker]

In which case why pray for the end to (for example) famine in Africa?

Even this situation would be mitigated by the world behaving more like a loving family .... so that some would not have too much, ... while others have not enough ...

 

[2PhiloVoid]

We were all absolutely shocked and appalled by the terrible events yesterday in Las Vegas. In discussing the incident with my work colleagues, someone said that, as usual, everyone is praying for the victims, praying for America etc. and we wondered what possible good is praying AFTER the event? I bet lots of those people caught up in the massacre were praying as hard as they could whilst bullets were raining down, and that didn't do anything.

If God is influenced by praying, why does he allow these things to happen whilst prayers are heading his way, and if he isn't influenced by praying, why bother? What is God going to do after the event when he didn't do anything during the event?

I went with my Christian girlfriend to church on Sunday and they spread the prayers liberally around - world peace, homelessness, hunger, Syria, refugees etc and on Monday we still had war, famine, homelessness, hunger and the poor people of Syria were still being killed relentlessly. Every church in the world prays for similar things every week, yet nothing changes.

Can anyone help explain what prayers are supposed to do and why God seems to ignore the biggest stuff?

If you were to do a survey of the use of prayer in just the New Testament alone, I think you'd come away with the impression that prayer isn't so much for the purpose of our asking God for this or that in our own lives, but rather for God's Will and Kingdom to be instantiated in the world in various ways. The primary manifestation of this is to be seen in the process of, and the hope of, people's hearts becoming more attuned to God's Spirit and Will and, thereby, seeking Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Sure, we can ask for "good things" in life, and there is some legitimacy in asking God for protection from violence and for a more peaceful world, as well as for freedom from sin, but unfortunately---and despite all of the rhetoric that various modern day, prophets for profit like to tell us---asking for stuff, along with a long, happy, peaceful life here on this earth isn't really the nexus of the purpose of prayer. Just look at the structure of the Lord's Prayer--there's barely anything there that would lend itself to all the things that people are usually "asking" God for.

Yeah, I know. This sounds like a hard pill to swallow in some ways, but if people actually WANT a better world, then the truth is......................................God really expects us to make strong efforts to make it so through our following of His directives (i.e. His commands), not by praying that He'd drop down like Superman and set it all aright. This is what the Jews were expecting when Jesus first came on the scene back in the 1st century. And what happened? Many of them, other than Jesus' disciples, turned away for many of the same reasons that people all over the world do today, whether they are Jew or Gentile. It's sad but true.


Peace,
2PhiloVoid

 

[variant]

I think it makes some people feel better.

 

[Steve Petersen]

Can anyone help explain what prayers are supposed to do and why God seems to ignore the biggest stuff?

Very good question. Hundreds of millions on all sides in WWII were praying. Still, over 65 million in Europe and possibly 20 million more in Asia were killed in that war.

I seriously doubt you will get any substantive answers, but you will get the usual inanity as people try to make God look good in this mess.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I think it makes some people feel better.

...prayer doesn't make me "feel better."

 

[variant]

...prayer doesn't make me "feel better."

Hence the qualifier.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Very good question. Hundreds of millions on all sides in WWII were praying. Still, over 65 million in Europe and possibly 20 million more in Asia were killed in that war.

I seriously doubt you will get any substantive answers, but you will get the usual inanity as people try to make God look good in this mess.

...I hope that doesn't include my point of view that I expressed above, Steve. But obviously, God isn't unwilling that any should die a human death---even Himself.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Hence the qualifier.

ok. I'll 'accept' the qualifier..................this time around.

 

[Steve Petersen]

...I hope that doesn't include my point of view that I expressed above, Steve. But obviously, God isn't unwilling that any should die a human death---even Himself.

Your answer is the rare exception. What gets me mad is when people say 'God is sovereign,' meaning essentially, 'He can do whatever He pleases no matter how egregious.'

 

[JackRT]

During the late 1940's and well into the 1950's Charles Templeton was one of the leading evangelists in North America. He was a contemporary and close friend of Billy Graham and at the time might have been a greater evangelist than Graham himself. In 1957, just following his greatest crusade ever, and after a long period of soul searching, he turned his back on his ministry and walked away from it. He said to himself, in effect, how can I stand here and preach passionately to these people when I know that I am not preaching the truth.

Charles Templeton wrote in Farewell to God --- "According to Christian theology, God is omniscient and exists apart from time. Being omniscient he knows the end from the beginning. But if true, would this not mean that all temporal life is predetermined? If God knows the end from the beginning then nothing is subject to change --- otherwise it would not have been known from the beginning. This being so, prayer cannot possibly change anything and there is no point to it. Apart from its function as worship, prayer is based on the premise that God can be talked into running the universe according to the wishes of a devout person on his knees. But, again, try to imagine the chaos if every devout person's prayers were answered! Belief in the efficacy of prayer is a form of self-delusion. Our real prayers are not what we say while on our knees --- the facile words whispered during a prayer. They are the aspirations, attitudes, and desires that motivate our daily lives. It is easy to prime the pump and have the words gush forth in a torrent of pious phrases but the proof of what we really want, regardless of what we say we want, is evident in the way we live."

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Your answer is the rare exception. What get my mad is when people say 'God is sovereign,' meaning essentially, 'He can do whatever He pleases no matter how egregious.'

...yeah, I agree. The misappropriation of God's Sovereignty, when applied to terrible events, usually results in explanations that fall a bit short of the mark.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Can anyone help explain what prayers are supposed to do and why God seems to ignore the biggest stuff?

Remember the flood that destroyed all life on earth when only 8, Noah and his family, escaped ?

God listened to Noah and his family.

God did not listen to the multitudes that drowned
- because they did not listen to Him,
and,
- they did not seek Him,
and ,
- they reveled every day in heinous sin, in gross immoral sin, in sickening rebellious sin.......
i.e. they loved sinning, they took great pleasure in sinning and bragging of sinning and encouraging everyone to sin.

If they had turned to God, listened to Him, obeyed Him, they who did would have been saved with Noah and his family....

 

[Steve Petersen]

Remember the flood that destroyed all life on earth when only 8, Noah and his family, escaped ?

God listened to Noah and his family.

God did not listen to the multitudes that drowned
- because they did not listen to Him,
and,
- they did not seek Him,
and ,
- they reveled every day in heinous sin, in gross immoral sin, in sickening rebellious sin.......
i.e. they loved sinning, they took great pleasure in sinning and bragging of sinning and encouraging everyone to sin.

If they had turned to God, listened to Him, obeyed Him, they who did would have been saved with Noah and his family....

How do you explain the Holocaust then? Millions of observant Jews who loved God and served him died. Your answer is not well thought out.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

How do you explain the Holocaust then?

Relying only on this one post of yours, and not any others,
it looks like you don't want to know.

Millions of observant Jews who loved God

Prove they loved God. OR just show it with evidence that you based this upon.....

and served him

Prove they served him. OR just show it with evidence that you based this upon....

Your answer is not well thought out.

It is YHWH'S answer.

 

[Tayla]

We should pray always, for whatever is on our mind; for things that trouble us, help needed by others, even just to worship God. Prayer is a way of connecting with God and opening our soul for God to squeeze in.

The problem is, I think, when people ask for God to change some condition or situation, then demand he do it. Or, when they expect from praying, a release of dopamine with its resulting pleasure.

 

[mindlight]

We were all absolutely shocked and appalled by the terrible events yesterday in Las Vegas. In discussing the incident with my work colleagues, someone said that, as usual, everyone is praying for the victims, praying for America etc. and we wondered what possible good is praying AFTER the event? I bet lots of those people caught up in the massacre were praying as hard as they could whilst bullets were raining down, and that didn't do anything.

If God is influenced by praying, why does he allow these things to happen whilst prayers are heading his way, and if he isn't influenced by praying, why bother? What is God going to do after the event when he didn't do anything during the event?

I went with my Christian girlfriend to church on Sunday and they spread the prayers liberally around - world peace, homelessness, hunger, Syria, refugees etc and on Monday we still had war, famine, homelessness, hunger and the poor people of Syria were still being killed relentlessly. Every church in the world prays for similar things every week, yet nothing changes.

Can anyone help explain what prayers are supposed to do and why God seems to ignore the biggest stuff?

Las Vegas was hardly unique. Your gun laws are out of synch with both Gods Kingdom and the constitution. The Second ammendment speaks of a the right of regulated militias to bear arms not the rights of crazy lone wolfs to buy assault rifles.

As others have said prayer is about communion with God in the good times and the bad. Its fruit is the advance of Gods Kingdom , better perspective , peace, a centering on the Divine will. Those who prayed and died in Las Vegas went straight to the Lord. Those who prayed afterwards contributed to healing and found the ways in which Gods Kingdom was demonstrated in acts of heroism there. But fundamentally there is something deeply wrong with the American attitude towards firearms that is not especially godly. Until this changes there will be more incidents of this sort.