prayer - what's the point?

[MaMaLa321]

I'm a Christian, but I find it difficult to believe that prayer works. Or rather, that God doesn't respond to prayer.
So I can't see any point in praying for peace in Ukraine, much as I would like to. Has God set the world in motion and left us to get on with it?
I know that we all have different ways of experiencing spirituality, and I'd love to know what others think. To me, prayer feels like I'm taking down a telephone line, with someone perhaps listening at the other end but never responding.

I'm not Christian but for me prayer is about bringing the suffering of others into consciousness, so that we might live our lives with more awareness and less complicity. The type of awareness that slowly and gently transforms our actions.. that drives us to care for others, to listen, to have compassion, to share what we have with those in need. That is where God resides.. in our willingness to be with the suffering of others.

Prayer for me is chatting to God about everything. It's about our relationship and it gives me a chance to be reflective and repent over sin, rejoice in blessings and just be so so thankful for the opportunity to have that relationship. He knows what's important to me and when I'm hurting or sad because others in my life are ill or in need and I pray for them, of course I'll bring that request. Its not a wish list. It's a conversation.

I respect everyone's belief, and each to their own so to speak.
The only two questions I ask are:

why should we follow words in a book that are written down, translated then interpreted, by humans ?

Why should any human bow to a mythical being ?

[Leaves thread before I say things ill regret about the Alpha course]

Best wishes OP.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_course

Ours isn't to try and understand it, we just have to trust that God has a larger picture and purpose than we will ever come close to understanding.

But why? Because some people who wrote bits of stuff that were cobbled together to make a book thousands of years ago said so?

Plenty of people go through life pretty happily, being generally good, kind, law-abiding etc without believing in god or his unknowable supposed purpose. How would it have benefitted them to have speng that time believing in a purpose when they can't even know what it is?!

@Fairislefandango I guess the difference is just faith. If you don't believe in God or want to, then yes the whole thing seems kind of ridiculous. I'd probably be just as 'good' without believing in God. But having a relationship with him adds a lot to my life 🤷‍♀️ not least the comfort it gives me to know that He's with me through the good and the bad even if I'll never understand the purposes those bad times are serving.

I didn’t become a Christian because I thought it equals happiness or goodness. I became a Christian because I came to realise God is real.
Sadly there are unpleasant Christians. There are equally as many unpleasant atheists - we are all drawing from the same, flawed, population.
Churches and Christians are generally ridiculed and rubbished on MN but Christians are encouraged to serve their community and everyone I know does some kind of volunteering and also tithes. Our church runs the food bank, homeless shelter, elderly lunch clubs, debt counselling, toddler and youth groups, supports an overseas orphanage, runs the tea/cake provision at the local prison visits, bereavement courses and many more. Churches do a lot of good in their communities that people don’t know about.
Luckily for me you don’t have to be perfect to be a Christian. Christians should always be trying to be kind and love their neighbours as themselves - it is the second commandment. I know I really do try but I often say stupid things or do something wrong. I am only human. It’s generally only atheists who think Christians need to be perfect, Christians understand everyone makes mistakes and everyone can be forgiven. I find it a very supportive community to be in. After my babies were born I didn’t need to cook for 3 weeks due to church friend’s church cooking meals for us. Jesus came for those of us who are flawed not perfect. I cannot prove that God is real - it’s called having faith for a reason. I believe because of my own personal experiences.
I know Richard Dawkins is much quoted by atheists - he says it is up to the believer to provide proof. I personally don’t mind at all if people don’t believe. I do think people are often biased when they do their research- I think atheists tend to mainly look at pages that support their view rather than try getting involved in the life of a church to find out what is behind it.
I also believe it was Dawkins who started the oh so imaginative Flying Spaghetti Monster that is much used by atheists to ridicule Christians. It was also him who thinks foetuses with Down’s Syndrone should be aborted.
Most atheists are lovely and do a lot of good work in their community. I just find the attitude of most atheists on MN unpleasant and it doesn’t make me want to join their ranks.

Well, prayer isn't only about asking for what you want! It's not a hotline to request goodies. It's about connecting with your creator. It's about thanking God for everything that He has given you! If you thank God every day for everything, even the small things, you'll start to realise how truly blessed you are. Talking of Ukraine - are you living in a warzone or are you safe in your home with your family and food to eat and a job to go to etc? Thank God if even one of those things is true of your life. How many people are praying to be in your situation now? Either with a roof over their heads or in a safe place or with enough money to get by. Thank God for that. That's a prayer everyone should be praying.

If you have a request or need help, of course you must pray about it! But if you have no faith that God will answer your prayer or hear you then I don't expect your prayer will be as effective as if you had faith. Faith is an essential part of prayer, as we can see from the bible. Pray about something and truly give it to God. That means hand it over to Him, trust Him, and stop trying to control the outcome by yourself. You will be amazed at what God will do in your life and how He will answer your prayers in ways better than you could ever have imagined by yourself. God will answer your prayers if you have faith that He will. Just maybe not in the way you expect or at the exact time you want. God's timing is perfect so sometimes we need to accept that a bit of a wait!

Yes, God knows what we need. But He wants a personal relationship with us! He wants us to talk with Him and know Him and love Him personally. When I struggle to understand something about God, it helps me to think of everything in the context of Him as our father and us as His children. Do you have children? Of course we provide for our children and feed and clothe them, but imagine if they never bothered to speak with us, never opened up to us. Never asked us for help but just tried to do everything without involving is in any way. Never told us about their day - the good and the bad. Essentially, took our food and clothes silently without a thank you, and literally ignored us in every way. Not even a grunt of acknowledge. How hurtful that would be! Any parent would hate it. That's not a relationship - definitely not a loving or healthy one. To me, that's a relationship with God without prayer. How hurtful it must be for Him when all He wants is a relationship with us.

So the purpose of prayer is not only to get things from God. It's to have a relationship with Him. If you don't know what to say then just start with thanks, tell Him about your day, tell Him about your worries or hopes or dreams, ask Him for help if you need it. Once you start praying regularly you'll realise the purpose of prayer. God of course knows what we need, but he still wants to hear from us. He loves us and wants a relationship with us. That's the purpose of prayer, in my opinion. Why do you talk with anyone? To connect with them? Why do we pray? To connect with God.

@Hawkins001 Catholic Christians at least don't believe God is "a being". We believe God is pure spirit and instead is the ground of all being.

The Bible is a library, a collection of spiritual books and works that were written by communities for those communities. So they spoke and described the spiritual life that made sense at the time it was written. They wouldn't have been books of course but scrolls and most were read in public. They are meaningful because they reveal humans describing the revelation of God and how that has worked out in humanity over thousands of years. They contain poetry, morality, ethics, poetry, parables etc. The Bible was never like a novel that you just read from first page to last.

Christians don't believe we have been searching for a spirituality looking for God, but that God was looking for us and came searching for us. We believe in revelation, that the Good News is that God revealed the inner life of God to us and that is love which we experience through grace and that we are loved and can live in that love for all eternity.

I do think people are often biased when they do their research- I think atheists tend to mainly look at pages that support their view rather than try getting involved.

Really? I don't look at atheist 'pages'. I tend to find that atheists simply have never seen any evidence for the existence of god/gods and therefore don't see any reason for thinking they exist.

I mean... do you 'do your research' to investigate whether you think that Hindu gods or other random spirits and deities exist?

thank you all for your thoughtful responses. The only thing that I can add is that, for me, what has helped is consistency in prayer. I live near a cathedral and, during Lent, I've been going to Morning Prayer every morning, and it has been very useful to me, spiritually.

I guess it has it's merits

I'm not religious at all, but friends and family whose faiths are Christian, Jewish, Hindi and Muslim are currently praying for my health. I'm happy for that as I think it's how they show they care. I don't think prayers have anything to do with outcomes rather I think prayer is for those who are doing the praying to feel like they're doing something.

For me it is standing open handed before God, I can't tell him anything he doesn't already know, he doesn't need anything from me, he knows what I need before I ask. But he delights, (as a parent of a troubled or non-communicative child might) when we open up fully to Him, with our joy and thanks, our sorrows, our "sorries" and our "please helps".

If we don't pray, it suggests deep down we think God can't or won't help us, that he isn't there or doesn't care. If we have faith that he loves us (the cross shows us that) and is the creator of the universe, then it would be a no brainier to spend time with him in prayer and tell him all our worries. When we try to struggle on and try to prove we can cope by ourselves, we put ourselves in his place and doubt his love and power.