Do you say prayers?

Me too. And the list is getting longer and longer. Not kneeling by the bedside though. Usually after lights out and ready for sleep. A little prayer of thanksgiving and prayers for those in need.

I have always considered prayer to be a relationship with God who gives and keeps on giving. If this relationship is separated from church and religion and wars and disasters (as in why does He allow this etc) it becomes more meaningful to the individual. We are born as individuals, live as individuals... our relationship with our God must therefore be individual. And I try not to judge other individuals whose relationship is their business only...

I pray. Prayers work. 🙏

Before my mum died age 97, I could hear her praying out loud. I thought originally that she was talking to herself. She had a bit to say about each member of the family but what made me smile was when she asked God to help J* stop smoking!

To go on from my last post, I was staying at her cottage the night before she died. I went into the garden very upset, looked at the sky and said “God, please don’t let her suffer anymore, she does not deserve it”. She died the next day which she may have done anyway but I like to think my prayer was answered.

Yes I pray every night and any time I’m in our church. I am Anglican so pray to Christ not the Virgin . I know that I have been listened to in the past and when my son died someone wonderful came into the hospital room to take him. Whether that was Christ or an angel I don’t know

Yes I prayer and God has been near on many occasions.

I am ashamed to say that I only pray when someone I love is ill. But I do believe in the afterlife so perhaps I should do what I did when I was a child back in the 1940's, say a prayer each night before going to sleep thanking god for the wonderful childhood and married life I had. Yes, my husband of 50 years died a few years ago but until that happened we had a wonderful life and now I am nearly82, I am fit and well with only minor medical conditions, I have a comfortable life and a lovely home.

So thank you for the post, it has really made me think and from now on, I will say a prayer each night before going to sleep.

Yes, I pray every day. I always include friends and family who are experiencing health problems. I realise that not many people do this these days, but I am grateful for those who do.

I do but I'm a bit of an unconventional Christian, I was bought up with no faith at all but got interested age 29 and was christened to the Catholic faith. I'm very modern, I like all the things the Victorian Christianity did not approve of & there are plenty of modern people around.
Anyway I do pray and have had many prayers answered and situations I'm sure dictated to my benefit by some divine hand but praying is not like Father Christmas, you can pray for something and nothing happens & I don't know why. I guess its just not in his/her great plan.

I always associate 'praying' with religion. I am not religious, but I am spiritual. My 'praying' is a different type of communication, but I guess you could loosely say I am 'talking with the Universe'.

I don't believe in religion as I can't justify a god who lets so many people suffer terrible illnesses, including children and babies. Also, all the natural disasters, wars and the Holocaust.

I never send prayers to anybody, I prefer to show my condolences in other ways. I do not have a religious bone in my body but love old churches purely for the architectural value. On the rare occasions that I would attend a religious ceremony e.g. a funeral I do not join in the prayers.

No, I do not pray to any imaginary beings, but also I don't belittle anyone who does.
I think we all have emotional crutches of one sort or another.

I'm not religious in the accepted sense of the word, and in fact I have some antipathy towards organised religion.
I do feel, however, that there is some greater power, and I often have a word - which I suppose is a form of prayer.
When my small grandson underwent neuro-surgery twice in the last six months, I was very grateful for the friends who said they would pray for him, and I was certainly 'having more words' than usual!
I am also extremely grateful to all concerned, whether spiritual or surgical, for the little chap's ongoing recovery.

A lifetime of church going has meant that prayer is part of my every day but in a Don Camilo sort of way - I talk to God when worried or working something out and I usually get an answer, though not necessarily the one I was hoping for. Certainly when DH was dying I was acutely conscious of not being alone, a feeling which dissipated after his peaceful death. No, I can’t explain it.

Oh yes I do pray and have experienced some quite remarkable answers. My mother was very poorly and we were told she would not survive. To cut a long and miraculous journey short, her surgeon gave her a chance by choosing to operate, mum pulled through that and another even bigger operation and we had 8 more years with her. I have at times been overwhelmed at the way God has moved through simple prayer.

I don't go to church, for the past 8 1/2 year I have prayed and read the Bible everyday, no matter what. I have a prayer list of people that I pray for, wheather I know them personally or not. To me faith isn't about the church and the rules its about the relationship we build with God. He has been so gracious to me throughout my life.

I prayed every night until I was grown up, a short “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John…” followed by God bless everyone who meant something to me, parents, siblings, friends, relatives, the dog, cats and budgie.

Not any more, but still a churchgoer and always pray for help and comfort if worried about stuff, which is quite often!

Remember our RE teacher who was also a Baptist minister saying that God might give you peace of mind, which wasn’t the same as passing your exams for you!

I'm with GrannySomerset, I pray to arrive at the right decision for me . I pray for wisdom to know the right things to say and do.
I give thanks for blessings, and often send out a wish for comfort for others.
I don't ask for anything tangible- that's confusing him with Father Christmas, as spabbygirl said!

Yes, I pray night and morning every day, in church whenever I attend Mass. amd of requested to pray for anyone, I do so.

I also pray every time I visit my husband's grave, and losing my way in the dark yesterday evening, due to a traffic diversion and then missing the right turning, I faced a 3 km stretch of country lane too bumpy and dark to risk cycling on, and a further 8-10 km along unlit tarred roads, where I could ride my bike, but could see precious little, so I sent more than one request speeding heavenwards, plus my warm thanks when I got safely home at quarter to eleven last night with an undamaged bike and no sprains myself, to find both cats patiently waiting outside the back door, although their cat flap was open!

Oh and I pray for Ukraine daily too!

And believe me, I am no saint, nor am I alone in actively trying to do my simple Christian duty to God and my neighbour.

I am confused by most of the Bible and, after years of regular church attendance, and shock and disappointment by some church leaders, I am totally turned off by churches and organized religion as a whole. And the evangelicals drive me nuts.. HOWEVER, without questioning or understanding it all, I feel sure there IS A HIGHER POWER. I call this power “God.” I pray to Him (yes, I think of this entity as “male”) often, through what I call “MY DIRECT LINE to God.” I quit going to church long ago, and don’t peruse the Bible any more, although I still hold onto a few verses as being comforting. I simply believe that God is the one in charge, and I don’t question “him.” And I thank him for the positives in my life. I pray for all those in need, and for specific people whom I know are suffering. I don’t discuss religion with anyone (and find it a bit uncomfortable to be doing it here). Bottomline, yes, I
pray as a very personal thing, and taught my grandson to do so from an early age.
Also, the past year, I have been regularly texting “God!”
I simply use the address, God. And my messages do go through—to somewhere! (Mostly, these text messages are prayers for God to please take complete control of our present political system and save us from one particular madman). Amen.

Daily

RMcD123

I am confused by most of the Bible and, after years of regular church attendance, and shock and disappointment by some church leaders, I am totally turned off by churches and organized religion as a whole. And the evangelicals drive me nuts.. HOWEVER, without questioning or understanding it all, I feel sure there IS A HIGHER POWER. I call this power “God.” I pray to Him (yes, I think of this entity as “male”) often, through what I call “MY DIRECT LINE to God.” I quit going to church long ago, and don’t peruse the Bible any more, although I still hold onto a few verses as being comforting. I simply believe that God is the one in charge, and I don’t question “him.” And I thank him for the positives in my life. I pray for all those in need, and for specific people whom I know are suffering. I don’t discuss religion with anyone (and find it a bit uncomfortable to be doing it here). Bottomline, yes, I
pray as a very personal thing, and taught my grandson to do so from an early age.
Also, the past year, I have been regularly texting “God!”
I simply use the address, God. And my messages do go through—to somewhere! (Mostly, these text messages are prayers for God to please take complete control of our present political system and save us from one particular madman). Amen.

I know what you mean, some of us now are really really pushing the boundaries. People are beginning to see that the bible is a political document with those bits in it that suited the church leaders of the time, for example they may have chucked out the bits with women priests and gay people because that's what their culture was at the time.
Fr Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest, teaches a version of Christianity which suits me, rather than teach that we're all sinners he emphasises the positive & says what a wonderful creation the world is.
Our current pope, Francis doesn't do much of the old Catholic way, he doesn't like people kissing his ring, I expect because its idolatry, goes to mass by bus and is happy to go out with groups of drag queens. He's my kinda guy.
There's a great film about it on Netflix called two popes, it shows the transition from old world catholics to new that the last pope had to do and is a great film about dispute resolution.

I also pray and I say Thank you God through out the day.I have very bad mobility problems so I always say Thank you God when I get out of the shower safely or I stumble and nearly fall. Silly for many people but it helps me.