Prayer and stuff
I just got a note from a friend who recently had surgery. Here's the last paragraph of the note:
"Anyway, when and if it is determined that the procedure was successful, I will give thanks so loudly that you will hear it no matter where you live. There are so many things that happen to us and so many prayer requests that are answered that we forget to give thanks for, that I want to offer up a most special prayer of Thanksgiving at this time for God bringing me through the operation, for all the prayers that went up for me, for all the friends and loved ones that came to visit me, and for my Love that never left my side the whole time that I was there. Thanks and Praise to our Dear Lord Jesus for all His mercy."
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OK, so here's a big area I don't understand/dislike: prayer. (see the last paragraph)
so if surgery is a success, then thank God?
and if not, then he didn't pray hard enough?
what about the people who prayed really, really hard (or are really, really "worthy"), but still get don't get healed?
it seems that we (as humans) have the tendency to remember the hits and forget the misses. (i.e. remember that time when you had a feeling to turn left instead of right and narrowly missed and accident, but forget all the times you've had an accident and God didn't give you a special little feeling.
anyways...thanks for reading my rambles.
"Anyway, when and if it is determined that the procedure was successful, I will give thanks so loudly that you will hear it no matter where you live. There are so many things that happen to us and so many prayer requests that are answered that we forget to give thanks for, that I want to offer up a most special prayer of Thanksgiving at this time for God bringing me through the operation, for all the prayers that went up for me, for all the friends and loved ones that came to visit me, and for my Love that never left my side the whole time that I was there. Thanks and Praise to our Dear Lord Jesus for all His mercy."
___
OK, so here's a big area I don't understand/dislike: prayer. (see the last paragraph)
so if surgery is a success, then thank God?
and if not, then he didn't pray hard enough?
what about the people who prayed really, really hard (or are really, really "worthy"), but still get don't get healed?
it seems that we (as humans) have the tendency to remember the hits and forget the misses. (i.e. remember that time when you had a feeling to turn left instead of right and narrowly missed and accident, but forget all the times you've had an accident and God didn't give you a special little feeling.
anyways...thanks for reading my rambles.
Not to mention they don't think of giving all the credit to the amazing team of doctors and nurses and our long history of scientific process to bring them that procedure....
ReplyDeleteHere's what I think: I don't think people forget to thank the doctors and nurses, etc, who helped make a surgery successful. But there's nothing wrong with thanking God. Without God, we'd have nothing. And sometimes what God gives us is nothing, and we have to accept that God knows better than we do. It's not a matter of God only having his hand in our lives when things go badly. We can't simply rely on science only, though. God works through science, and sometimes he even works against science (miracles and such).
ReplyDeleteJust because not everything works out the way we would prefer doesn't mean we shouldn't give thanks to God for the times they do work out. Sometimes things go wrong because we don't listen to what God is telling us. Sometimes things don't work out because we're human. God never promised that we'll always be happy, or that life will always be great. Without some suffering, what's the point of happiness?
A person who prays and doesn't get what he or she wants will hopefully be able to realize that God has a better plan than any of us could ever imagine. But prayer never, ever hurts. At the very least, it can bring the person praying closer to God, regardless of the outcome of that prayer.
One more thing: None of us deserve to have God answer our prayers. It's only through his great mercy that any of us make it through to the next day, even though most of us don't even realize it. After all, it's only because of God that any of us are here in the first place.
ReplyDelete