Why does God answer some prayers and not others?

[locationforna]

Just this really.

If you are a Christian, please can you tell me why God answers some peoples prayers and not others?

For example, one woman could be praying her baby survives. Baby dies. Another woman with the exact same situation of an unwell baby - Baby lives. Both prayed, they prayed a lot

Why is it you say 'God is good' and 'God does answer, this is a miracle' and 'we are praying for you'

Do you really think that if the first person prayed hard enough, her baby would've survived? Or if not, and it's just chance, why pray?

I believe in God by the way. I have been studying for a while and seem to lean towards Judaism but notice a lot of 'God is good, he answered my prayers. It's a miracle'

Why some prayers and not others? Why do people think He's helped you get a job offer you really wanted but not answered a woman across the road's prayer not to be raped?

There is suffering throughout the Bible. Jesus himself suffered according to the Bible. That's not what I mean - I mean specially, why some prayers can be answered and not others that are equally in need?

@locationforna As a religious practice I loved letting go of the idea of eternal life

I don’t get this, I thought life after death is as much a belief of Judaism and Christianity.

I will give a longer answer another time, but primarily because it is God's choice.

Your god chooses war? and famine?

Tim Minchin explained this in his excellent song “Thank You God” on youtube:

She had a church, Sam, Sam and his mom went to
An evangelical church in Dandenong just, just south of Melbourne there
And she went there that Sunday and the entire congregation
Prayed for his mum
And the next Tuesday, she went to the doctor and her eye was completely
Healed, as if nothing had ever been wrong, and
I had asked for evidence, you know
This was the first time I had ever had a first person account of a miracle
So, I— really, really had an impact on me
And I went home and wrote this song
I have an apology to make
I'm afraid I've made a big mistake
I turned my face away from you, Lord
I was too blind to see the light
I was too weak to feel your might
I closed my eyes, I couldn't see the truth, Lord
But then like Saul on the Damascus road
You sent a messenger to me, and so
Now, I've had the truth revealed to me
Please forgive me, all those things I said
I'll no longer betray you, Lord
How I'll pray to you instead
And I will say thank you, thank you
Thank you God
Thank you, thank you, thank you God
Thank you God for fixing the cataracts of Sam's mum
I had no idea but it's suddenly so clear now
I feel such a cynic
How could I have been so dumb?
Thank you for displaying how praying works
A particular prayer in a particular church
Thank you Sam for the chance to acknowledge this
Omnipotent ophthalmologist
Thank you God for fixing the cataracts of Sam's mum
I didn't realize that it was so simple
But you've shown a great example of just how it can be done
You only need to pray in a particular spot
To a particular version of a particular god
And if you pull that off without a hitch
He will fix one eye of one middle-class white bitch
I know in the past my outlook has been limited
I couldn't see examples of where life had been definitive
But I can admit it when the evidence is clear
As clear as Sam's mum's new cornea
(That's extremely clear!) Extremely clear!
Thank you God for fixing the cataracts of Sam's mum
I have to admit that in the past I have been skeptical
But Sam described this miracle and I am overcome
How fitting that the sighting of a sight-based intervention
Should open my eyes to this exciting new dimension
It's like someone put an eye chart up in front me
And the top five letters say I C G O D
Thank you, Sam, for showing how my point of view has been so flawed
I assumed there was no God at all but now I see that's cynical
It's simply that his interests aren't particularly broad
He's largely undiverted by the starving masses
Or the inequality between the various classes
He gives out strictly limited passes
Redeemable for surgery or two-for-one glasses
I feel so shocking for historically mocking
Your interests are clearly confined to the ocular
I bet given the chance, you'd eschew the divine
And start a little business selling contacts online
Fuck me Sam, what are the odds that of history's endless parade of gods
That the God you just happened to be taught to believe in is the actual one
And he digs on healing
But not the AIDS-ridden African nations, or the victims of the plague
Or the flood-addled Asians, but healthy, privately-insured Australians
With common and curable corneal degeneration
This story of Sam's has but a single explanation
A surgical God who digs on magic operations
Now, it couldn't be mistaken attribution of causation
Born of a coincidental temporal correlation
Exacerbated by a general lack of education
Vis-a-vis physics in Sam's parish congregation
And it couldn't be that all these pious people are liars
It couldn't be an artifact of confirmation bias
A product of groupthink, a mass delusion
An Emperor's New Clothes-style fear of exclusion
No, it's more likely to be an all-powerful magician
Than the misdiagnosis of the initial condition
Or one of many cases of spontaneous remission
Or a record-keeping glitch by the local physician
No, the only explanation for Sam's mum's seeing
They prayed to an all-knowing super-being
To the omnipresent master of the universe
And he quite liked the sound of their muttered verse
So for a bit of a change from his usual stunt
Of being a sexist, racist, murderous cunt
He popped down to Dandenong and just like that
Used his powers to heal the cataracts of Sam's mum
Of Sam's mum
Thank you God for fixing the cataracts of Sam's mum
I didn't realize that it was such a simple thing
I feel such a dingaling, what ignorant scum
Now I understand how prayer can work
A particular prayer in a particular church
In a particular style with a particular stuff
And for particular problems that aren't particularly tough
And for particular people, preferably white
For particular senses, preferably sight
A particular prayer in a particular spot
To a particular version of a particular god
And if you get that right, He just might
Take a break from giving babies malaria
And pop down to your local area to fix the cataracts of your mum…

@Bluekerfuffle yes, there is an afterlife in Jewish theology but IME it doesn't come up much. It's certainly not a focus of belief or some kind of promise or reward. Whereas it was a feature of every Christian service I went to, totalling about ten years' worth.

I'm so sorry. This resonates with me. My brother was 31 when he died suddenly, but any faith I had was blown apart when that happened. He was one of the kindest, gentlest human beings in the world and I am so angry that his life was taken away from him.

@PermanentTemporary , thanks, sorry I quoted the wrong person there.

Op don't you think it's fair that this topic gets posted under the religion thread ? You're not really giving the suited people the opportunity to respond to your question !

I took my son shopping today - he wanted a particular Lego toy - I said no. He was very upset , called me the worst mother in the world . My reason for saying no is that he's just received a lot of presents for Christmas and with an upcoming birthday within less than week he certainly wasn't due another toy in the interim . His brain is unable to fathom such at 5!

I prefer the freemason philosophy, over main steam.religions, any day

I think if it based on statistics. Look up the Monty Hall problem.

Basically if there are say five main religions, and they all believe their religion is THE religion, yet they can't all be. This means that you only have a 20% chance of choosing the one true religion... I.e. you are 80% likely to be wrong.

Another way to look at this is how you came into religion. You adamantly believe/ KNOW your religion is the one true religion... but I'm 99% sure you didn't research the main ones and pick the most appealing... you were raised into it. Well, let's say you HAPPENED to be born in Sauda Arabia, you would be Muslim. If you were born in Thailand, you'd be Buddhist. Basically your faith (statistically) is nothing more than your ancestral happenstance.

I’m an atheist, which I know completely ignores the second line of your post. But a committed Christian that I used to work with explained her view to me, that your life on earth is nothing more than a specific-to-you job interview to enter heaven. It’s effectively one big role-play. So it’s a deliberately testing environment. Some of the people and things you encounter are only here to play a part in this, to facilitate this testing environment. That’s why it seems unfair, and unequal. Other than the end result (whether you live a life good enough to meet the heaven entry requirements), what happens on earth is all irrelevant really. It’s just a means to an end. To use your example, the baby who died was merely a supporting actor, and has simply done their job and went off to other/better things.

Obviously, as an atheist, I don’t believe any of it. But it was an interesting concept, and in my very little understanding of religion and religious doctrine, seems to tick the boxes of free will, judgement, faith, belief and folllowship of god and the good, etc.

It's acceptable to shut someone down for saying they believe in God but when a man says he's a woman we must agree and play along.

Because a person is a real, breathing person, a religion is just a belief

I guess my feelings are like @drspouse . I’m a Christian. I think prayer is like venting - sharing your journey with God - sometimes that’s going to involve asking for stuff, but sometimes it’s not. It helps me reflect and understand my feelings more.

it doesn’t answer the question about unanswered prayer. Which perhaps is a bit related to the problem of suffering - because assuming the prayer is for a positive thing - why would it not be granted? If you were to assume this life is not the end - then maybe it changes the perspective a bit? I hope to one day be united with God and see again people who have died. Some would say that’s wishful thinking.

I guess I look at the behaviour of the disciples and early Christians in the face of persecution - they seem to have really believed Jesus’ resurrection - and were willing to suffer for it. It’s not a proof, just one argument that gives me hope. I wish you well on your journey.

my mother is a committed Christian who likes to say grace before a meal. She thanks God for providing the food on our table. I have asked her before if she believes that God is literally putting the food on our table in which case is he actively choosing not to put food on the table of others then. Yes apparently. And it’s all part of his plan and we can’t possibly understand that plan so there’s no point in trying.

@DomesticShortHair interestingly she also holds a similar view to your friend. This life is literally a stepping stone to eternal life so in the grand scheme of things short and not that important. I asked what was the point of it then and she didn’t really have an answer to that. Presumably if god knows everything then he already knows who’s making it to heaven so why not cut out the middle man?!

I'm so sorry. I agree. I was raised a Christian but visited a Romanian orphanage in 1994 and that's how I realised there is no God. And if there is, I have a serious issue with him and how he let those children suffer.

*@Namenic guess my feelings are like @drspouse . I’m a Christian. I think prayer is like venting - sharing your journey with God - sometimes that’s going to involve asking for stuff, but sometimes it’s not. It helps me reflect and understand my feelings more.

it doesn’t answer the question about unanswered prayer. Which perhaps is a bit related to the problem of suffering - because assuming the prayer is for a positive thing - why would it not be granted? If you were to assume this life is not the end - then maybe it changes the perspective a bit? I hope to one day be united with God and see again people who have died. Some would say that’s wishful thinking.

I guess I look at the behaviour of the disciples and early Christians in the face of persecution - they seem to have really believed Jesus’ resurrection - and were willing to suffer for it. It’s not a proof, just one argument that gives me hope. I wish you well on your journey.*
*

Very accurately explained*

@cherry2727 my husband took his own life in an agonising psychotic breakdown. He was unable to 'rest in the Word', to pray in any meaningful sense, though I can believe that in a way at that time he was expressing a choice. We're not talking about demands for 'stuff', and it is unbelievably patronising to use that analogy.

No doubt you will. But I doubt anyone wants to read the preaching of a homophobic hardliner.

With respect, that's hardly the same as a mother living in a country affected by famine for example, praying for her child not to starve to death is it? Why do you suppose an omnipotent God would say no in those circumstances?

OP, have you seen the film The Shack? It's very thought provoking and might address this question. I think it's on either Prime or Netflix.

I'm too afraid to believe. If God is real, then so is the devil.

Wonderfully honest.