Praying for something is fruitless, as detailed in the previous article.
So, why pray? Is prayer useless? No, of course not.
Is prayer bad? No, of course not.
Let me backtrack a little. Prayer is fruitless if one ‘prays for’ something. It’s impossible for me to do statistical research, but experience tells me that much prayer includes some kind of request from god. Praying for success, praying for victory, praying for future happiness, praying for good health, praying for more money, praying for a miracle, all these are not going to work. If it happens to come true then it is merely that, a happening, a coincidental happening. It simply doesn’t happen frequently enough for the power of prayer to be proven.
Prayer is used incorrectly by too many. Doesn’t it soon become obvious that ‘praying for’ something is not the function of prayer. In fact it seems a rather selfish act. It is as though prayer has been hijacked into a parallel use, for which it was never intended.
Prayer is a conversation with god. It is a private refuge where one can be at peace with a listener who will never go away. During the prayer one feels a certain ease, a peacefulness, and often the way forward becomes that little bit clearer. One can more easily and readily acknowledge one’s own weaknesses, one can better appreciate the people and things that really matter in life, one can put life into perspective.
Praying is not to pray for, but to pray with.
thiNK TWice 