posted on Jan, 30 2015 @ 09:18 AM
originally posted by: backcase
"I realize according to some interpretations not all prayers are answered, despite Jesus making it sound like that. Though I don't necessarily think
he meant literally."
Please explain this.
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24
If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. John 14:14
And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. James 5:15
Now that I read these again, it does sound like Jesus is being literal. They aren't vague, they are straightforward. According to these verses there
are no conditions, other than faith, for prayers to be answered. Jesus doesn't say, "Ask anything in my name and I will do it if I feel you deserve
it, or need it, or it's part of my plan."
I don't recall at the moment what other verses about prayer say. Maybe there is more to it than what Jesus says. However this begs the question. In a
time before the Bible, where people couldn't study scripture and look things up, why is Jesus telling people "If you ask anything in my name, I will
do it." if it doesn't actually work like that?
It takes faith to pray and faith to believe that God has answered prayers and that answers and conclusions have not come by chance. If you take up a
study of virtue you will see that all virtues are connected and come from love.
This reads like: "You need a confirmation bias to believe prayer works."
If prayer worked outside of the mind, there would be stats to show it!
Especially considering James 5:15. Yet we sometimes hear stories on the news about Christian families who have lost a child because they believe more
in the power of prayer than in taking their sick child to a doctor for a diagnoses and treatment.
Miracles like you have mentioned happen, but it seems to happen so that it takes science off guard and science cannot entirely wrap its head around
it. Look at the cases of exorcisms, look up Stephen Jeffreys, Jack Coe, and Dr. John Alexander Dowie. Some of these men turned aside from God because
of the gift granted to them made them mad with pride.
Whoa whoa whoa.. Miracles like the ones I mentioned happen but when they do science can't wrap its head around it? Bold claim. Please give me some
evidence of this. The miracles I mentioned were healing the blind and raising the dead.. You're trying to tell me that God will answer prayers to
raise the dead but not to heal amputees!?
edit on 1-30-2015 by WakeUpBeer because: (no reason given)