Prayer.

[Gwynne]

I hope this is in the right place... I'm posting it in Liberal Theology for a reason

Virtually every popular book on prayer is written by conservative Christians, often with a charismatic perspective on prayer. I'm a liberal Christian, and while I enjoy reading these books, I am often left wondering if I'm the only liberal Christian for whom prayer is of major importance.

My life is spent in prayer, if I'm not thinking actively about something else, I have a running conversation/questions with God. It drives my husband nuts because a majority of my thoughts are taken up by theological questions and he avoids anything theological or philosophical

I've started writing a book about prayer. It won't have a specific liberal slant to it, but it won't have a conservative/charismatic tone to it either.

So my question is for all of the other liberal Christians here. How important is prayer in your life? Has it changed your life in any way? Thanks in advance!

 

[Hologram]

As a liberal Christian, prayer is not a big importance to me. I pray very little actually. It's usually of thanks when it is a prayer. I will say to other Christian friends that "I am praying for you", because this translates that, I am thinking of you and care about you. I am still skeptical on prayer and slowly deciding if I believe it works or not.

Nonetheless I believe prayer to be a good thing. Meditation could subsitute the word prayer. Prayer helps one organize their thoughts. By praying you figure out what and who is important to you. It is a vent for anger, joy or sadness. I believe prayer to be a good thing.

What is the point of prayer?

 

[atoborch]

By the last two post you could just as easily write a book about the nature of prayer. What is paryer, what is one, what would not be. I would agree with Gywnne, I'm constantly thinking about God and what is of God and what is not, so and and so forth. It would be intersting to find if that would be denotiated as a prayer. I'll buy that book.

 

[Living4JC]

As a liberal Christian, prayer is not a big importance to me. I pray very little actually. It's usually of thanks when it is a prayer. I will say to other Christian friends that "I am praying for you", because this translates that, I am thinking of you and care about you. I am still skeptical on prayer and slowly deciding if I believe it works or not.

Nonetheless I believe prayer to be a good thing. Meditation could subsitute the word prayer. Prayer helps one organize their thoughts. By praying you figure out what and who is important to you. It is a vent for anger, joy or sadness. I believe prayer to be a good thing.

What is the point of prayer?

Prayer is simply, talking to God. I do not believe prayer really helps us organize our throughts, and i disbelieve entirly that mediation could replace prayer...whereas meditaion is focusing and thinking about a certain issue,i believe prayer is the time when we can have a truly important conversation. Miracles happen through prayer. I think prayer is exceptionally important, as it is our direct link to God. And prayer is a powerful thing, because nobody can take it away from you. In our most hardest times, God is waiting there for us to talk to him. with prayer we are never lonely. I am so thankful to God that he has made it so easy to talk to, and so many wonderful things have happened because of prayer. A good brother in christ's eyesight was healed as we prayed over him. Until you actually start praying, i don't think you can truly understand how powerful it is.
God Bless!

 

[Hologram]

Prayer is simply, talking to God. I do not believe prayer really helps us organize our throughts, and i disbelieve entirly that mediation could replace prayer...whereas meditaion is focusing and thinking about a certain issue,i believe prayer is the time when we can have a truly important conversation. Miracles happen through prayer. I think prayer is exceptionally important, as it is our direct link to God. And prayer is a powerful thing, because nobody can take it away from you. In our most hardest times, God is waiting there for us to talk to him. with prayer we are never lonely. I am so thankful to God that he has made it so easy to talk to, and so many wonderful things have happened because of prayer. A good brother in christ's eyesight was healed as we prayed over him. Until you actually start praying, i don't think you can truly understand how powerful it is.
God Bless!

I have prayed many times. I was considerd a "prayer warrior" a few years ago. I was deeply into it. But the results are never reliable. I'd pray for safety over an activity, yet I or someone else would become injured. I would pray for healing of someone in our church, yet he passed away a few months later. Things like this have lead me to the conclusion that prayer does not work. Asking of God for something is in vain.

The defense people come back with is that it was not part of God's will. That's why someone became injured, and that's why the old man died. It wasn't part of God's perfect will. But that seems there are so many loopholes with that defense. It doesnt hold water. It seems like a cop out for reason and logic. I personally, am not satisfied with saying "Oh well, that was just God's will."

 

[Gwynne]

I have prayed many times. I was considerd a "prayer warrior" a few years ago. I was deeply into it. But the results are never reliable. I'd pray for safety over an activity, yet I or someone else would become injured. I would pray for healing of someone in our church, yet he passed away a few months later. Things like this have lead me to the conclusion that prayer does not work. Asking of God for something is in vain.

The defense people come back with is that it was not part of God's will. That's why someone became injured, and that's why the old man died. It wasn't part of God's perfect will. But that seems there are so many loopholes with that defense. It doesnt hold water. It seems like a cop out for reason and logic. I personally, am not satisfied with saying "Oh well, that was just God's will."

I'm reading a really, really good book right now called The Will of God by Lesslie D. Weatherhead. Basically he says that no, it's not the will of God. The will of God is that we live peaceful, safe and healthy lives. However humans have a will of their own, and that will has consequences good and bad. We make choices and God let's us make those choices. God can turn the bad into good, but bad is not His will. I highly suggest the book.

As a liberal Christian, prayer is not a big importance to me. I pray very little actually. It's usually of thanks when it is a prayer. I will say to other Christian friends that "I am praying for you", because this translates that, I am thinking of you and care about you. I am still skeptical on prayer and slowly deciding if I believe it works or not.

Nonetheless I believe prayer to be a good thing. Meditation could subsitute the word prayer. Prayer helps one organize their thoughts. By praying you figure out what and who is important to you. It is a vent for anger, joy or sadness. I believe prayer to be a good thing.

What is the point of prayer?

That could make and entire book! To me prayer is not just asking God to do something, or to fix someone, it's talking to God and more importantly it's learning to listen to God. I don't think meditation is a substitute for prayer, I think it is a kind of prayer. As we meditate on a scripture or other concept it can become clearer and clearer until we finally get it.

What frustrates me about prayer is that I so often see people just asking God for things. They rarely say thank you, rarely express gratitude, and then when they don't get what they expect, they get angry at God, not realizing that God isn't going to give them what they want, but what they need and we don't always want and need the same things. They forget the "not as I will.." part.

 

[john14_20]

Hello all.

J.B. Torrance, the famous Scottish theologian, has changed forever my understanding of prayer.

I truly recommend reading his book "Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace".

In summary form, he says that there is only One true pray-er, and that is Jesus Christ.

He is praying to the Father, and He includes us in His prayers. He gives us His prayers and we pray with Him to the Father.

This is why we pray "In the name of Jesus"

The first real step on the road to prayer is to recognize that none of us knows how to pray as we should. But as we bring our prayers to God, we find someone who is already praying for us, with us and in us. We offer our broken prayers to Jesus. He takes them, He sanctifies them, He cleanses them – He makes them His prayers. And in a wonderful exchange, He makes His prayers, our prayers, and presents us and our prayers, in Himself, to the Father.

If this sounds interesting to you, get Torrance's book - you will love it.

Blessings to all, Pete

 

[trekker]

Prayer, for me, is an attitude of being aware of God.

I come from a religious background where I felt prayer was mostly trying to motivate God to do something on someone's behalf. It was almost as if I was informing God of things that He did not know so that He would somehow sit up and take notice. Therefore, prayer life was, for the most part, structured and often followed a formula. I usually started with a salutation, expressed thanksgiving, entreated God to do something, and closed with "in Jesus name" as either a way of saying, "over and out" or as a subtle guarantee that God would do whatever I asked.

My prayer life now is much more free and open. I don't follow a formula. In fact, I am just crazy enough to think that my constant awareness of God is, in and of itself, prayer -- communicating with God, whether I am using words or just thinking about Him. Mainly, I think that it is giving thanks in everything because that is the one thing that I know is God's will.

 

[Cordelia]

Prayer is a lot more important to me now than I ever thought it would be. I can't imagine, these days, how I ever stayed sane without speaking to God every day!

I think that my prayer life is mainly my way of accepting the possibility that God has definite plans for my life...I talk to Him a lot about my desire to submit and be worthy of blessing. This is strange, but nice, as I'm not really a submissive person I ask for God to grant his guidance to me, but only in line with His will.

Oh, and I give thanks, a lot. I've lots to be thankful for

I believe that prayer is powerful because a lot of weird, wonderful things have happened to me after I've prayed, that I just can't put down to coincidence.

 

[Gwynne]

Prayer, for me, is an attitude of being aware of God.

I come from a religious background where I felt prayer was mostly trying to motivate God to do something on someone's behalf. It was almost as if I was informing God of things that He did not know so that He would somehow sit up and take notice. Therefore, prayer life was, for the most part, structured and often followed a formula. I usually started with a salutation, expressed thanksgiving, entreated God to do something, and closed with "in Jesus name" as either a way of saying, "over and out" or as a subtle guarantee that God would do whatever I asked.

My prayer life now is much more free and open. I don't follow a formula. In fact, I am just crazy enough to think that my constant awareness of God is, in and of itself, prayer -- communicating with God, whether I am using words or just thinking about Him. Mainly, I think that it is giving thanks in everything because that is the one thing that I know is God's will.

That's how I am! And almost constant awareness, thoughts always going about God and what He wants for me and how I can live in a way that glorifies Him!

 

[Crazy Liz]

Virtually every popular book on prayer is written by conservative Christians, often with a charismatic perspective on prayer. I'm a liberal Christian, and while I enjoy reading these books, I am often left wondering if I'm the only liberal Christian for whom prayer is of major importance.

Gwynne, I think this must have a lot to do with what sells. There are lots of great books on prayer that liberals read more than conservatives. Most of them are classics, though, not popular books. Think of Thomas Merton, Brother Lawrence, and so many of the mystics. I think most liberals interested in prayer prefer the classics to popular books. If you are looking to write a more liberal book on prayer for a popular market, I think an anthology of some of these classics, perhaps with some commentary, would sell.

I guess what I'm saying is that what defines a popular book is that it is one designed to sell well. ISTM it is the "conservative" Christians who are interested in the latest prayer fad and buy lots of popular Christian books. Liberal Christians tend to read more broadly and prefer the classics, when it comes to spirituality. The only popular Christian authors I can think of right now who appeal to both liberal and conservative Christians on topics of spirituality are Richard Foster and Dallas Willard. And they draw heavily on the spiritual classics.

 

[GreenPartyVoter]

We try, in our family, to pray before we go to bed, before we go out the door in the morning, and before supper. They are all fairly formulaic, but that is because our kids are just little (4 & 6).

Here's what we generally say:

Grace:
God is good, God is great
Thank you for the food on our plate,
In Jesus' Name, Amen

Morning:
Thank you Jesus for a good night's sleep,
please let us all have a good day at work and school,
let us all be safe and do what is right,
and help us to remember that any time we have a problem
we can come and talk to you about it.
In Jesus's name, Amen.

Bedtime:
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
Tis God that keeps me through the night
and wakes me in the morning light.
Thank you Jesus for a good day
(we list some specific praises here, then
we list some specific petitions)
Please help the government make wise decisions.
Please take care of all the sad and hurt and
sick and scared and lonely people,
all the cold and hungry people,
hot and thirsty people,
all the plants and animals and the whole earth,
in Jesus' name amen.
(Then we sometimes blow God kisses)