Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
[quote=june 7th;5600007]June admits up front that she is perhaps the last person in the world to be asking this question, given the fact that she upholds a nonbelieving status here, and she is NOT being passive-aggressive towards Mari4him or anyone else, but she cannot help but wonder:
She may be the last, but, her words are wise. If people are going to pray over the present state of affairs, wouldn't it somehow be a better idea that they pray that God somehow manages to find a way to work through them as a means of orchestrating change in the world?
This is what Christians are called to do. We can change our communities, counties, etc one person at a time, and God works thru us to do this. All the glory goes to Him for each blessing to be found. Yet, prayer when it is a sincere and heartfelt prayer shows God our heart, when we humble ourselves to Him, we are submitting our will to Him and allowing the Holy Spirit to work thru us for what God has called us to do. It gets complicated if one thinks about it too much, humans tend to over think how God works,and if we would but come to him as children, putting our faith and trust in Him, and quit trying to 'think' of what He wants us to do, but instead 'wait' on Him to tell/show us what we are to do. If we are quiet, we will hear Him. Ok, this is going OT so I will stop.
Please know that June is not putting down anyone who is advocating for prayer here, nor is she putting down the notion of prayer, itself. However, there is something about this that June does not get. (Yeah, right...her "favorite" line.) It seems to June that if anything, "prayer" is a response and/or a "reaction to." As such, it would thereby imply action. -Be it the act of praying, or the act of praying as a means whereby action was thereby enacted. In the individual. In order to enact, through one's own self, that which one believes it possible in this world, as it aligns with one's own religious beliefs.
This is where we must put off our self, and wait on God via the Holy Ghost to work thru us for the task at hand. Yes, prayer is an action, we feel/see something and we react by prayer, sometimes as Praise and Thanksgiving, other times as a cry out for change. We must be very careful to ask God for His Will in our lives. Often-times, we pray for self, our wants, our needs- which is fine as long as we ask God to answer prayer via His Will. This is why many prayers go unanswered. Our wants at times does not align with what the Holy Father has in store for us. The Holy Spirit was a gift given to us from Jesus to help us discern the path that God has for us. Yet, we humans go off on our own, allowing wordly influences to guide us in a direction that we might not be destined to go. This is why many prayers go unanswered, or when He gives us what we want, we find it is not a good fit, or we realize it was not what we wanted after all...thus the cycle begins again.
It just seems to June that if June was a believer, that it would be awfully darn easy for June to pray that God help the world become a better place, as opposed to June praying that God help June to become more "whatever" (spirit filled? June truly hasn't a clue!) such that she could, in turn, try and do her little part to help the world become a better place...
We are called to do this very thing June. To become what God has in store for us. We cannot do this if we cannot see past our own selfish wants, needs and desires. It is human nature to want what we want, and it can be so very hard to lay these down for what God wants to give us freely. He is our Creator, and wants to see us prosper and be happy which is why He gives us so very much. We just have a hard time seeing His gifts. And by prospering and being happy, I do not mean money and that we will never feel pain, because all will because of sin. But if we take it to the Cross, He will see us thru anything.
If each Christian would focus on helping one person, just one, think of all the people that could be helped in this world. By being selfl-less, we get blessed, and the people we help pay it forward to others and become blessed, and the blessings continue as each pay it forward.
--And like June said, above, she really wouldn't know one way or the other, as evidenced by the rambling, inarticulate, near incoherant nature of the above. (Along with everyone praying for the state of the nation, June's starting to wonder if folks should be praying for her to be a bit clearer~! More concise.)
Am I missing something here??? I thought it was an excellent post. I think many times we as Christians need to sort of wake up and take stock of how we are living this life Christ has given to us. We are born-again, saved, gifted, set apart. We have so much and there are so many out there who need help, comfort, time, money, compassion.
The post really made me think of my walk with God and how I relate to the world.
Am I missing something here??? I thought it was an excellent post. I think many times we as Christians need to sort of wake up and take stock of how we are living this life Christ has given to us. We are born-again, saved, gifted, set apart. We have so much and there are so many out there who need help, comfort, time, money, compassion.
The post really made me think of my walk with God and how I relate to the world.
I agree. The OP was a beautiful, God inspired post.
I don't believe it needed any further thought or explanation.
The fruit of it was immediately apparent...
and, then all of this confusion came in which served to take our minds off of the original post....
Last edited by World Citizen; 10-09-2008 at 03:05 PM..
I agree. The OP was a beautiful, God inspired post.
I don't believe it needed any further thought or explanation.
The fruit of it was immediately apparent...
and, then all of this confusion came in which served to take our minds off of the original post....
It shows that even non-believers still come in and read a Christians story,who knows what the holy spirit will do with it.
Non-believers still have questions and I think the non-believers handled their selves well, and it should show we can work together and learn from each other.
We should all be doing our part to make it a better world then like aiangel said " Thinking all's okay because we're saved." Many who think they are saved will find that they are not!!!
By the way, it was a beautiful post and should make us all think to try a little harder to produce more fruit.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It seems to June that if anything, "prayer" is a response and/or a "reaction to." As such, it would thereby imply action. -Be it the act of praying, or the act of praying as a means whereby action was thereby enacted. In the individual. In order to enact, through one's own self, that which one believes it possible in this world, as it aligns with one's own religious beliefs.
