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

[A_Thinker]

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.

I agree ...

We cannot pray for one thing, ... but enable another opposing thing, ... then blame God for his decsion not to contravene our behaviour.

In a sense, prayer should motivate us to do better ourselves. In effect, ... to give our prayer wings.

In that sense, prayer can be seen as a realigning of our will to God's.

God has not said that He will do everything for us. He wants to PARTNER with us to accomplish His will (i.e. promote the GOOD and oppose the EVIL).

 

[ViaCrucis]

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

If a chief point of prayer is to align myself with what God wills and wants; then praying for something like this instills in me a desire to act toward the betterment of my neighbor.

But at the end of the day Christians pray because we believe God instructs us to bring ourselves before Him in prayer, as a child to a loving parent.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Dave RP]

I agree ...

We cannot pray for one thing, ... but enable another opposing thing, ... then blame God for his decsion not to contravene our behaviour.

In a sense, prayer should motivate us to do better ourselves. In effect, ... to give our prayer wings.

In that sense, prayer can be seen as a realigning of our will to God's.

God has not said that He will do everything for us. He wants to PARTNER with us to accomplish His will (i.e. promote the GOOD and oppose the EVIL).

I understand that intention of individual prayer, what I don't understand is why in churches across the UK (and presumably the world) prayers are said for all sorts of tragedies which appear to be ignored by god. As I've mentioned before my partner is a Christian and I occasionally go to church with her. I asked her why the prayers for (as an example) the war in Syria, God clearly has no intention of stopping that war, of protecting the people there whether Christian or not, yet nearly every week there's been prayers to God to stop that appalling situation.

If there were just prayers for the congregation and their relationship with God I could get it, albeit I don't share her faith, but prayers for world wide issues I just miss the point and she couldn't explain it.

So any further thoughts would be gratefully received.