3.4 Prayer and Salvation
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go. – Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865), the 16th President of the United States.
Prayer, in simple words, is our appeal towards heaven, pleading passionately, asking God for help with intense desire. Prayer is powerful. Powerful prayer will get god to stand up and take notice. In U.S., 90% people say that they pray for their health, for their work, for their loved ones, for their final exams or for their immediate danger. In 2010, there were more than 12 million Americans who prayed routinely. Does prayer do any good? Scientists for centuries have tried to test the power of prayer and positive thinking, but
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How does prayer help people pass through hard times? Well, the answer can be multifaceted. Historically it was quite ritual that praying to a perceived higher power helped men cope with their emotions and with their offensive situations in various ways. They dropped to their knees to pray. It was their escape hatch allowing them to vent pressure out without the fear of violent reaction. Some prayed during actual episodes of violence. They viewed themselves in a positive light. Another way, it was also a mechanism simply to disengage themselves from the overrated thought of present danger. During prayer, victims came to settle down with strategies and see themselves as they believed God saw them and answered their prayers: what to do next, the strategies. Since this awareness is mostly positive, it helps raise their senses of self-esteem that counteract some adverse situations. Praying to God relieves worries, anxieties and stresses during difficult times. When people use prayer to enrich their real-word selves, they feel good. Their god is sufficiently real; but, their capacity to make that real is not the same as the capacity to make it good or useful. There are times when people get captivated by the prayer and get so overwhelmed that they find themselves crying while praying and seem almost
Lewis illustrates the power of group prayer in The Screwtape Letters Lewis very creatively writes letters from Uncle Screwtape (the head demon) to Wormwood, who is another demon living in a new believer on earth. Uncle Screwtape gives Wormwood advice on how to turn the man away from God so he advises against things that would bring man and God closer and endorses activities and thought that drives man and God further apart. In this letter Screwtape says “the best thing, where it is possible, is to keep the patient from the serious intention of praying altogether” (The Screwtape Letters 24). Screwtape recognizes the power and goodness of group prayer as a moral activity, because the people are doing it to worship God, not themselves or the devil.
Crusades: Salvation or Exploitation The phrase Crusade is a French word that means lifting the cross. The phrase is mainly used for describing the campaigns or the military battle that was waged against the Muslims by the early Christians. The Muslims controlled Israel, Jordan, Palestine, and Lebanon and had waged war crimes against Christians. These areas were named the holy land.
Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” (page 4).
He wants the patient to care more about himself and material items rather than devoting his time to God. Causing the patient to forget about prayer would, in turn, inhibit the patient’s devotion to the “Enemy.” In today’s society, many people are easily distracted
As Screwtape advises his nephew, "When they meant to pray for courage, let them really be trying to feel brave. When they say they are praying for forgiveness, let them try to feel forgiven. Teach them to estimate the value of each prayer by its success in producing the desired feeling, and never let them suspect how much success or failure of that kind depends on whether they are well or ill, fresh or tired, at the moment" (Lewis, 16). The emotional rush that occurs when drawing near to the Holy Spirit is a feeling almost every Christian has experienced. New believers tend to use this feeling as their sole motivation for prayer, study, and worship.
God also plays an important role in the way he helps people get through the hardest things in life. The power of god can bring the help to get through the strongest and hardest times. Similarly, words have the power to create a moment but they can also easily destroy
If a person did not have hope they would be constantly anxious. That person would be so worried he or she would be unable to see the goodness or love in life. Hope according to Christians is letting themselves be taken care of by God. Because of this Christians are not preoccupied with fears and can focus their time into something productive, like Mary Astell did (Piper).
One such example is when his house is broken into. He describes it as such: “My house was broken open in two places, and about twenty pounds worth of plate stolen away, and some Iinen; my spoon and knife and neckcloth was taken. I said, is not this an answer to prayer? Jane came up and gave us the alarm betime in the morn. I was helped to submit to Christ's
‘’If you are sincerely seeking god, he will make his existence evident to you’’, this quote by William Lane Craig, is suggesting a very simple thing here, a person is what he/she believes. Our belief is what separate us from each other. Some of us believe in God and some of us carry a contradictory view to it. When a person faces the worst of a situation, the belief grows stronger. A person either blames god for the situation or seek God to make it through the situation.
Prayer should be in the forefront of everything. The privilege of communicating with and co-laboring with God is a practice essential to fruitful work as a
Within a world that has endured so much tragedy, and so many crippling hardships, people are often forced to consider how exactly they are going to handle the adversity that they are faced with. Do they run at it head on and recklessly attempt to deal with it? Do they lose faith with their religion and their God? Or do they simply pray, and hope that amongst all of their misery that something good will come of it and a light will be found in the end? Those are the hard decisions that people are forced to make on the daily, and maybe the questions that we have, or the lack of faith we endure is what makes us stronger at the end of the day.
Dantès conveyed the value of his prayers during a moment of hopelessness when he said, “Realizing this, the prisoner regretted not having devoted the long hours that had already passed, ever more slowly, to this task, instead of wasting them in hope, prayer and despair. However, slow the work, how much could he have
Growing up my mother prayed with me and ever since then it has become a part of my daily routine/habit (performance pattern). Often times I pray in the morning, before I start my day, and in the evening before I go to sleep. I derive peace and a sense of calmness during this occupation. Especially after a stressful day, it gives me the opportunity to reflect on my day, the good and the bad, which contributes to peace of mind and my overall mental wellness. I also pray before my meals which allows me to be thankful and appreciative which I believe helps me to stay grounded.
Thus, additional coping resources, including “spiritual support seeking” perhaps reflecting inclinations to resist passive tactics in an effort to resolve stressful experiences, may account for the positive outcomes enjoyed by highly identified religious individuals (Pargament, 2002). Others suggest that religiousness, in general, offers a global meaning system the benefits of which are apt to be marked among individuals whose religious group membership and the beliefs therein are central to their self-concept (Park,
The aim of the first week and through the aid of these rules, the person is called to conversion of the heart from a worldly and mediocre life. Desolation, in simple terms, implies as the work of the evil spirit. It happens in the prayer life of people that they can feel that the Lord has abandoned them. Frustration and discouragement strike them in such moments. They don’t find any meaning in the perseverance.