Recker's World
Reason 26
Prayer had no obvious effect on anything. Taking action yourself is what gets things done
I see now the big problem I had was that I was too busy praying about things. I spent many hours praying and studying the bible, in an attempt to drawer closer to God and get to know him better. I cast all my burdens “on the lord,” praying for this and praying for that. Trying to gain strength from Jesus and hoping for opportunities that never came. However, there was one thing I wasn’t doing… well not very well and that was getting off my butt and taking action.
Some may criticise my comments on prayer and say, ‘What’s the big deal? What harm is it doing?’ The fact of the matter is prayer can do a lot of harm, simply for the fact that no real action is being taken when perhaps it should. What if a person dies or their health deteriorates due to REAL action not having been taken?
For instance, if you knew a child next door was being abused, would it be better for the child just to pray for him and his family or would it be better to report the child abuse to the authorities? If all you do is pray and that child continues to suffer, what good is being done?
What about those who would rather pray for their child's good health rather than have them immunized?
What about when your child is being bullied at school. Is it better to pray about it or actually contact the school to have something done about it? The advice I normally see given in church is pray for God to intervene. As if that did any good!
I have heard examples of people praying for people instead of taking them to a hospital or a doctor and then that person dying because of not getting medical attention. I have heard of people dying in so-called exorcisms due to people believing that prayer would work rather than getting professional health.
On television in recent times, I watched a documentary about a religious community here in New Zealand called Gloriavale, somewhat like the Amish. A woman had a baby and there was something physically wrong with the baby. They prayed over it and not surprisingly, the prayer didn't work, so in desperation they FINALLY took the baby into the nearby town to see a doctor. Imagine if they hadn't done that and continued to pray, hoping that God would do something? The baby would have most likely died.
It just demonstrated that when it comes down to it, Christian's don't really trust prayer, because ultimately they still rely on doctors and hospitals. It's like there is no REAL Christians in the emergency centre of a hospital. They are relying completely on the medical experts, although they still have the audacity to give thanks to God afterwards even though they were saved by actual humans.
Ironically, that’s what these Gloriavale Christians did afterwards.
God and prayer did nothing, which is why they went to the hospital. The medical experts were the ones who saved the baby and to say that God chose to heal the child through medical experts sounds like pure fantasy.
Another thing about prayer, which seems very convenient when it comes to believers, is that there is always an excuse for everything. When you prayer you ALWAYs get an answer. It will be either yes, no, or not right now. A cynic may say that’s just another way of saying, “whatever will be will be”. People who don’t pray will get the same results. they will get what they want, not get what they want or get it at some later time down the track. There is no evidence to show praying affects anything and studies have shown this to be the case..
The other thing you have to contend with is God’s will. Most Christians believe that you won’t get what you want if it’s not God’s will that you get it. Which begs the question, why pray at all? You’re not going to get anything that God hasn’t intended you have anyway. And God surely knows what we need anyway and promises to supply all our needs, not to mention heap us with blessings. So why would we think we can achieve anything through prayer, especially if the prayers we pray require the violations of the freewill of someone else? God will do what God wants to do. You cannot manipulate God no matter how much you plead or how many tears you shed. He is not your cosmic errand boy.
The excuses continue too, no matter what happens in your life, even if your prayers aren’t answered:
If you are good and good things happen to you it's "God's blessing"
If you are good and bad things happen you are "being tested".
If you are bad and good things happen "God's grace is upon you"
If you are bad and bad things happen it's because you are being punished.
Once again it just makes more sense to say “whatever will be will be.” There is no reason why there has to be a reason for everything.
I would agree that in general prayer is harmless, but not always. The bottom line is, it's better to take REAL action rather than just praying. It's REAL action that makes a difference. These people who claim that God helped them overcome difficulties, sins, personal problems etc etc., didn't overcome them because of prayer or God. They overcame them because they took action themselves.
In the 80s when I was going through my personal struggles, I didn’t see how ineffective prayer was. I just kept on praying, as we are taught that’s what you should do. But now I see it so clearly. Sure, prayer may make you feel better, like you really are doing something, but in reality you’re doing jack shit. The only way to get anywhere in life… the only way to solve your problems or achieve your goals is ACTION! Your own action, or action by other humans, not the action of some perceived God.
Perhaps if I’d learnt this lesson back in the 80s, I would have achieved so much more at a younger age, but no, I prayed and waited on God. Things ONLY worked in my favour after I got off my butt and took action, having had a gut’s full of the rut I was in. For some it takes hitting rock bottom before they make positive changes in their lives. Fortunately for me that wasn’t the case.
