frank317:
does God really answer prayer?

frank317:
sorry for the long post, just had to let all that is in my grieving heart out.

zyzxx:
I really like Hw u express ur mind up there but pls let me analysis some point for u,
1. do u believe in evil power dat it exist? If not do research or confirm it thru ur dad ask im d background of ur family he will tell u y he pray day and night
If u knw how family curse lay embargo on people's life u will knw dat there is different btw praying and praying thru. Victory is for d winner not for those wu quite.
I remember my family house wen I was in Ss2, dat man his rich more dan my father den and he is a junior bro to my father. My dad will treck a long distance to go and cut d grass for his junior bro for him to av money. Later after long prayer we discover dat d man his using d head of all d family children dat spend holidays with im,, me and my bro included.
After many prayer d power of dat man spoil sold all what he had. no car again. Nw his my dad dat sponsor him and his ouse,
Pray thru pls...

asalimpo:
You can't (in)validate a notion on d bases of a single/few/unrepresantative sample. It isnt scientifc.

Wen d salk vaccine was tested, i read that the sample size was very large . Massive. Circa 100k+ or a million plus subjects before it was certified fit for use.

Go speak with a large set of christians hear their stories hear their claims then form ur opinion.

asalimpo:
Sceptics write off most claims of answered prayers as Chance.
It mayb chance and some accounts are doctored but others arent. Chance tht occurs after a particular action has been initiated isnt likely chance. It cud b consequence.

E.g. A woman has cancer. Undergoes chemoterapy, gets better. Lives. Sceptics never attribute her healing to chance. She lives after medical action was taken against her ailment.

Child has holes in the heart, doctors say the situation is hopeless. Family take him home expectg the worst.
They begin prayg against d situation, he begins showg signs of improvement. Taken back to the hospital,it's found that the hole has miraculously "dissapeared". Doctors,sceptics attribute it to chance!
Very Objective.

frank317:


well, i know there is evil but i dont understand what u mean by evil power. i have never seen one and if there is an evil power out there and i dont see it, its really none of my business. if i see one, i will definitely give its existence a consideration. just like i dont care about what really happens in china.
well, if there is evil in my family, given the number of prayers had made, them the God he is praying to must either be deaf or careless. even if things turn around for him now, it makes no sense.... really, it makes no sense. will his wife come back to life? i stopped praying and started to work hard, just recently i got a really good job.
if ur uncle was a 'winch' and u experience it first hand, i will not doubt the story, thats what u experienced and have the right to believe in evil power, it still does not change my opinion except i experience one myself. thanks

frank317:


i have done that and didnt get any concrete story from them, just shallow stories backed up with the strong need to believe was all i saw.

frank317:


well, if there is a reason to doubt any miracle story, trust me, someone must doubt it. if i tell you ten people that i have a purple fire spitting dragon in my room, some might believe and some might not. would you blame those who don't believe since there is actually a reason in the story to doubt it. there are holes in the story and some might just believe without bothering while others might ask question. now would you say those who dont believe should be doomed or accuse them of behaving badly?

what am saying is that you God should know better than giving people doubtable stories given the fact that he understands us better than we understands him and he knows the devil is here to deceive his children. he can do better than giving us scenes we humans are capable of finding doubtful despite his supernatural abilities. he know what he will do and no one will doubt his existence, until then, he shouldnt expect everyone to believe in his ridiculous doubtable scenes.

frank317:


well, i know there is evil but i dont understand what u mean by evil power. i have never seen one and if there is an evil power out there and i dont see it, its really none of my business. if i see one, i will definitely give its existence a consideration. just like i dont care about what really happens in china.
well, if there is evil in my family, given the number of prayers had made, them the God he is praying to must either be deaf or careless. even if things turn around for him now, it makes no sense.... really, it makes no sense. will his wife come back to life? i stopped praying and started to work hard, just recently i got a really good job.
if ur uncle was a 'winch' and u experience it first hand, i will not doubt the story, thats what u experienced and have the right to believe in evil power, it still does not change my opinion except i experience one myself. thanks

frank317:


well, i know there is evil but i dont understand what u mean by evil power. i have never seen one and if there is an evil power out there and i dont see it, its really none of my business. if i see one, i will definitely give its existence a consideration. just like i dont care about what really happens in china.
well, if there is evil in my family, [b]given the number of prayers had made, [/b]them the God he is praying to must either be deaf or careless. even if things turn around for him now, it makes no sense.... really, it makes no sense. will his wife come back to life? i stopped praying and started to work hard, just recently i got a really good job.
if ur uncle was a 'winch' and u experience it first hand, i will not doubt the story, thats what u experienced and have the right to believe in evil power, it still does not change my opinion except i experience one myself. thanks

asalimpo:


things start small then grow big.
Those shallow stories u despise was foundational to developing their confidence in God.
The point however,is God answers prayers. Often in ordinary ways.
You are looking for a spectacular/sensational account bf u consider your stand.

asalimpo:

your argument is a judgement call on d wisdom of God.
He has chosen to not reveal Himself overtly now to every man,
but that's for a reason and a season. That doesnt mean you can speak for evry one. God is more real to some than He is to others.

frank317:

Yes that's what I am looking for, is that a bad thing?

asalimpo:

you're not lookg for the truth then. You're lookg for a God tht meets your criteria. Keep lookg , in ur arrogance you'll never find him cuz He doesnt hav ur time. If you were sincere and honest you wud find Him. The bible says seekers will find.

frank317:


And how is this a response to my post my dear good man?
He leaves some in doubt yet it is their fault. He has chosen not to reveal himself to man, yet man is to blame. He has given man a reason doubt his wisdom, yet its mans fault. Man is who is falible takes the whole blame, a perfect God chooses to punish these flaws despite given fallible man reason to doubt him.
I intend to engage u till u convince me. Pls endeavour to respond directly to my concerns. Stop being defensive when u are connered.
Now pls respond to my previous reply to ur post. Thank you

frank317:
I grew up in a Christian home, the Deeper Life type of Christian home. My Dad was and is still a very prayerful man who puts all his trusts in God. I remember in the early nineties, during one of some of our morning devotions, dad used to concentrate his prayers on asking God to help touch the government to release his money (think he made a supply to them or something). This prayer was repeated in such a way that it became a song, the money was paid later but it took a long while, and by then the value had even reduced. All the same, dad believed God had answered his prayers.

Does God answer prayers? After taking my time to consider a lot of things that happened in my life and that of people around me, I have come to form a strong opinion that God does not really answer prayers. Sorry, I am not just talking out of ignorance, but out of close observation and with a free mind.

I believe that God exists, not because I have seen him or because I have experienced him. Even people who claim that they have experienced God knew what it took them to form such opinion and believe that what they experienced was God. Well, the fact is that anybody can experience anything and call it God. But the reason I believe in God is just by simply looking around me and wonder how all these came into being. I just don’t have idea what, how or who he is. I don’t believe God has two legs or has feelings like us but if he does then he is not God.

I think the bible and a whole lot of books we read are the source of confusion in the world today. I have tried to wonder why God who created heaven and earth, who is so mighty, should want to communicate with his creation through a book. And this book makes him look like nothing but just a greater human who gets angry, jealous, regrets and reacts without thinking. Why does God need to be all that? Why does he enjoy our worship? Why does he plan to throw us in hell because we didn’t worship him?

I believe this world is very mysterious. There is so much about it that we don’t know about it. For instance how do we talk of a friend and all of a sudden he comes around or he calls u on the phone? How do u explain telepathy and ability to see the future? Some people sure have gifts and how they come about it only continues to be a mystery. I don’t bother about the spiritual or after life (how can we talk of after life when we have not fully grasp the present life), because the spiritual is a mystery (if it exists) how does spiritual things we talk of everyday looks like?

I don’t believe prayers are answered but I believe in miracles. Yes miracles occur because of the same mysteries in the world. But we chose to call it God in action. You see belief is one human capability that we have that can control our lives. What you believe in is what you see rules you. If you believe that Mr. John is a thief, maybe because someone told you so, you will see that whatever he does will make you assume he is actually a thief. He might just tell you that he loves keeping late nights, all you will do is conclude and think, ‘I knew it, he keeps late night because he uses that period to steal’. Believe me, if Mr. John is actually not a thief it will take a lot to make you change your mind about him.

That’s how we form opinion about God, after reading the bible. We pray and the answer comes after ‘our efforts’ we say it’s God. But chances happen to everyone. From observation people who pray hard still go through what people who don’t pray do. The only difference is that people who pray always go back to thank God for answering their prayer when their effort is positive.

But think, if God delivers you from a terrible accident, and others die, does it mean that he chose not to deliver them? To me, if you pray against death, why should God deliver you against it, when eventually you will die? You might say so that you fulfill your destiny (which we never know), but we have seen so many young prayerful people die when they haven’t fulfilled their destiny, yet we say Gods time is the best. We chose to make him win whether outcomes favour us or not. But does he really have a hand in all these? Did he tell us so? Even after reading the bible, we continue making assumptions about God as it pleases us.

My dad always prays till today. He never sleeps, he is always praying, yet he has lost his wife, his kids are still on the average, he is struggling, life is really not easy for him. What is happening to all his prayers? Life is all about chance, your decision and how it affects other people’s decision and how other people’s decision affects yours. No prayer can change that about life; if not can you pray for a job as an accountant in NNPC without being a graduate and get the job?

Importance of prayer
There is a lot of reason why prayerful people can’t stop praying. Prayer gives us hope. It makes us feel that there is a powerful being who has heard us and is in control of our situation. Such thinking can make us energetic in our endeavors, but energy, effort and wise thinking make things happen and not prayer.

Prayer can make us relax a bit. Relaxation helps gives us a clear picture of what we are doing. After praying, there comes a sense of focus since we now believe our thoughts are now controlled by a divine being. This is natural, have you ever wondered why people chose to associate with celebrities and rich and powerful people. Having them as friends makes us believe we can think like them and become like them.

Prayer is like wishing ourselves well. Everybody does that. Prayer is just a more intensive act of well wishing. Or have you seen anybody who wakes up in the morning and wishes that he does not get the contract he seeks today? With this, I think everybody prays.

In conclusion my brother, everybody has right to make opinion out of life events as it pleases him. But it becomes a problem when you see people with different opinion as evil or lost.

People always ask why atheists attack Christians. It is because, Christians have a psychological way of making other religion look bad or lost (Islam on the other hand uses physical means like violence and rejection). They just plain believe that other opinions are wrong and they think telling you is an act of boldness and working for God. Well, the conflict will continue to exist as long as beliefs are used to make others feel bad. Christians need to learn to preach with UNDERSTANDING.

Dopeyomi:




#dumbfounded!




After reading this i felt bad i must confess!


After struggling and praying no changes buh i belive God exists and will come to my rescue someday..



#Pr0ton gOt the shares..

Pr0ton:


LOL...








I 'pray' you don't one day become like this guy...






#Think

frank317:
does God really answer prayer?

asalimpo:


your logic is warped and twisted to say the least. You're lookg for missiles to hurl at God. That's wat ur types comb d bible for- for ammo.
Before hurlg ur accusations, understand d context and philosophy of d system your slurring. In this case Christianity.
Your accusations are from your own context.
First, if God reveals himself overtly to all, how would our responses b genuine?
Temptation proves a man.
On earth evry1 is given the opportunity to do as they like thereby deliberately provg d contents of their hearts. We will all b without excuse on judgement day.
No one will b able to say, "it wasnt me" or "i didn't mean to" cuz we had our wills and are responsible for our actions.

In your case for example.
Your Father,despite his setback keeps on believg.
While you choose to disbelieve.
Two,people. Same event. Different reactions.
Will you pin responsibility for your action on God!
God forbid.
Will you pin it on the devil? As much as many wud like to ,you can't. You and only you are responsible for your actions.

asalimpo:
When you talk about God revealing Himself ,you mean in a physically convincing way.
In other words,to d five senses.

Why doesnt God reveal himsel to man = why doesnt God reveal himself to me in a way i can (see,hear,touch,smell,taste(if possible)).
This is wat these kinda arguments eventually boil down to.

You want to verify the reality of God through the testimony of your physcal senses.
You want physcal confirmation of God. This isnt/hasnt happened so you say there is no God.

Pr0ton:


LOL...








I 'pray' you don't one day become like this guy...






#Think

frank317:


What do u mean? Like have two horns like me?

asalimpo:
When you talk about God revealing Himself ,you mean in a physically convincing way.
In other words,to d five senses.

Why doesnt God reveal himsel to man = why doesnt God reveal himself to me in a way i can (see,hear,touch,smell,taste(if possible)).
This is wat these kinda arguments eventually boil down to.

You want to verify the reality of God through the testimony of your physcal senses.
You want physcal confirmation of God. This isnt/hasnt happened so you say there is no God.

frank317:


He musnt Appear to me physically. Of course he can make me not have doubts about his existence. Whats testimony? U must be a joke. Are humans the only ones capablebof proving Gods existence? Testimonies are doubtable, ur God should know better. If I find it doubtable and doubt it, have I done something bad?

frank317:


He musnt Appear to me physically. Of course he can make me not have doubts about his existence. Whats testimony? U must be a joke. Are humans the only ones capablebof proving Gods existence? Testimonies are doubtable, ur God should know better. If I find it doubtable and doubt it, have I done something bad?