Do you believe in the power of prayer?

I'm not atheist but at the same time, I believe in the power of positivity and mindset. Prayer is kind of a strong word because you can't pray away someone's lost limb, like another SW user said. It's never been proven. Prayer can work maybe to give you strength to endure certain things such as you say, it works as a sort of mantra to yourself.

@blindbob Well I am an ungrateful creature by nature so I tend to forget the details of everything that God has directly and pointedly clearly done for me when I am happy and busy and feel like I am handling everything myself (which I never am so that is only an illusion).

But once when I was a shy inexperienced, kinda low self esteem 22 year old I met a guy who was " way outta my league". I was infatuated to an unhealthy degree instantly. I tried to fake like I was cool and collected but maybe the guy could see thru me. He shortly began toxic behavior. This guy was my kryptonite. I went on to know him for 5 years and everyday that I saw him felt like the first time, lightening.
Beyond infatuation we could and did talk for hours. We could go deep on many subjects. He provided fun and excitement. He respected my intelligence and told me so often.
He also played many women sometimes right in front of my face. My self worth grew worse. He would not commit to me but led me to believe that he was committed without the actual words. He got his ex-girlfriend pregnant while we were together and one day he called me asking for a ride but didn't say to where. Once I drove to where he said it was to a hospital. Little did I know that I was taking him to see his baby be born and they were now together.

He sometimes treated me like dirt on his shoe. He sold all my schoolbooks for weed money one day while I was at work. My mental state was going downhill.
These things are a fraction of what he did but I couldn't get away from him. I tried for one year and then he started contacting me apologizing and I was back. I thought of him so often during our year apart.
One day after many tears and another 4 years of living hell I prayed with all of the depth of my soul that God would deliver me from the infatuation that I had for a person who had negatively impacted my life so severely and who would not change.
I never thought that it was possible for me to live without him. After I prayed this quite suddenly I felt my desire for him changing. It took a few weeks but I started to find him repulsive. Despite his pretty face and impeccable sense of style I could only see how he had treated me. My mind disconnected from needing him and reconnected to more substantial things.
A thing that I could not do in 5 years started lifting right away.

A couple months later he was out of my life and I moved on. He wasn't all bad but he treated me badly. He actually gave me a stuffed animal that said," I love you" right before I finally left. It was strange because at any other time in our life together he would never had allowed that word to pass in any form between us.
It was not hard to leave at all. I have never regretted my decision and I credit God with giving me the strength to move on which I had asked him for.
He has called me several times but even before I was married I was not tempted.

I think… there are a lot of different words for prayer that are essentially the same concept.

Prayer serves an internal purpose. I think you’re partly right that it helps with acceptance, but also hope, sometimes a feeling of connectedness to things beyond your singular experience of existence, sometimes clarity or inner reminders, sometimes the strength to take necessary actions.

I don’t think that prayer grants wishes though. I think.. we make choices that are in alignment with what we say we want or we make choices that are counterintuitive.


In that sense, I’ve had many prayers come true.

Yes. I have. 🙏😊

I guess the question would be, answered by who? I'm an atheist but understand how people would like to think there's something looking out or providing for them. I guess I don't see why they don't show a little humility, understand that they're animals and not special, and focus their 'prayers' where they belong. On themselves. Life is a solo and we all run our own show. People pray and when their 'wish' doesn't come true they say, "Well, god heard me but he didn't give me what I wanted." If something happens to true then give say "god heard me." No. That's not real life. Eliminate the god part and the same thing would happen. Prayer is just another word for us focusing our attention on something. But when you're doing it without a supernatural power you're more apt to take the actions necessary to make something happen in lieu of waiting for some deity to "give" it to you. I know there's lot of paths up the mountain. And that's fine. But I wish people would understand that they run their own lives. I think people would be a lot kinder, happier and more pro-active with how they live. Just my two cents.

Yes I believe in the power of prayer. This is not something of which I can convince anyone. It is my personal experience and there are many aspects to prayer which most people do not consider.
1. Sometimes we prayer for something and the answer is no or not right now.

I will give one example. In Luke, Zacharias was a priest. He and his wife prayed for a child/heir for their whole lives. But his wife Elizabeth was barren. Imagine praying for a child for your whole life and never recieving what you prayed for and the Bible says that Zacahrias was a good man and a priest and that God found no fault in him( means that he was living godly).
But in his old age when he thought that babies were no longer possible for him and especially Elizabeth he remained faithful ( but I assume no longer prayed for a child) and an angel of God came to tell him that his wife would conceive.
What did Zacaharias do? He scoffed and did not believe it was possible.
But soon his wife fell pregnant with his baby.
God knows what we need, he knows what he has planned for us. We don't know. We can't understand the big picture. Sometimes what we want will lead us away from God even though we think that it will be a great thing. Sometimes we are disobedient in another area of our life. Sometimes the answer is simply not right now. Thru reading his word we can understand when we hear the voice of God and thru prayer and meditation we can remove our own desire clouding our thoughts and hear his voice.

Yes I strongly believe in the power of prayer. God always listens and will help in different ways. Sometimes the answer to our prayer might be no or come in a different way than expected.

God knows what we need, loves us and has a plan for us. We need to trust in him. Prayers are also more about connecting with God rather than about demanding things.

No. Absolutely not.

It’s no different to children making a wish when they blow out candles.

Yep, but not in the way where we're asking for things, it's not like that. We have to pray that whatever is or occurs is Gods will. It's not like he's sitting there granting wishes like a genie.

I think prayer is an expression of hopes and dreams to God.. i don't think he’s obligated to answer or fulfill them .. i mean look at Abraham waited a hundred years for a kid and the Israelites were slaves for ages while praying to God.. so.. personally I'm not obsessed with prayer..

A friend told me that it’s best not to pray directly for what I want, but to pray for what is good for me, trusting myself to whoever I am praying to.
I had this strange experience which shouldn’t be connected..yet.. I had a friend who was very sick for weeks. I prayed for him to get well, intensely. I prayed for a whole afternoon. To the point where I got myself sick with fever. The next day i was feeling off but he called to tell me he’s doing well finally… few days later, his best friend died. You might say all these aren’t connected and perhaps they’re not. But I’m left with the feeling of responsibility regarding interfering with what is … …

Exactly that's how it works well.
Mm not for expecting miracles.. I think

Yes but it's hard to pray when I have too much in my mind

Yes, I do believe in prayer.

All the time..,👍

Not really, but it can't hurt!

Prayers are never answered. They might sometimes come true, but their chief worth is in raising spirits to an optimistic level. This has a beneficial effect on the body due to mind-body dualism.

For others yes.

Nope

I've had prayers answered many times. Getting the answer is as much as noticing what is the answer, if you do not pay attention you will go around all your life thinking nothing is happening around you.

No, frankly, I don't. If you wanna do that, that's cool by me but I don't.

Not one little bit

Ask an amputee if they ever successfully prayed a lost limb back into being