{"id":18,"date":"2012-06-25T08:53:58","date_gmt":"2012-06-25T12:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/?p=18"},"modified":"2012-06-25T08:53:58","modified_gmt":"2012-06-25T12:53:58","slug":"does-god-hear-our-prayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/06\/does-god-hear-our-prayers.html","title":{"rendered":"Does God Hear Our Prayers?"},"content":{"rendered":"
A classic joke by comic Emo Phillips captures our frustration with prayer. \u201cWhen I was a kid,\u201d he writes, \u201cI used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn’t work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"does<\/a><\/p>\n

Emo was right. Prayer doesn\u2019t work that way. It is not about asking God for things. It is about reminding us of what is most valuable in life. It is about reminding us of the gifts we already have. And it is about aligning ourselves with a power in the universe greater than ourselves.<\/p>\n

What Matters in Life<\/strong><\/p>\n

Malcolm Gladwell talked about the way we make decisions in his book Blink<\/em>. We usually make decisions about people, about purchases or about what to say in the blink of an eye. In other words, we do not think much about it. We act by instinct.<\/p>\n

Where do these instincts come from? How are they developed? We develop them through education. We learn them from our parents. And we can hone them in prayer.<\/p>\n

How Prayer Works<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prayer hones our values by guidng us to see the forest through the trees. When we say, for example, that God heals the sick, we are not envisioning God as a cosmic physician.<\/p>\n

We are reminding ourselves of the sacredness of life and of the relationships that matter most. We are reminding ourselves that we are meant to live, and that our words and actions can help heal others. God heals through us.<\/p>\n

The Gifts We Have<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the core principles of a life of faith is that life is a gift. This truth is embedded in Judaism. The Hebrew word for Judaism is \u201cyehadut,\u201d which shares its linguistic root with \u201chodaot,\u201d the Hebrew word for \u201cthanksgiving.\u201d In other words, Judaism means thanksgiving. Giving thanks is one of the core ways we express our faith.<\/p>\n

Prayer is the primary way we do that. We thank God for our breath, for a functioning body, for life and for teaching us how to live. Among our most religious acts is saying \u201cthank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Power Greater than Ourselves<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 19th century English poet Matthew Arnold described God as the \u201cpower greater than ourselves that makes for righteousness.\u201d By describing God as a \u201cpower,\u201d Arnold suggests that God gives direction and energy to human existence.<\/p>\n

By seeing that power as \u201cgreater than ourselves,\u201d Arnold acknowledges that God is not limited by the natural world. God both exists in the world and transcends it. In other words, we can experience God in our lives, but we can never say precisely what God is.<\/p>\n

I love this approach because it forces us to be humble. God cannot be captured by any one creed or set of beliefs. God is too big for that. Yet, God is not so big and mysterious as to be irrelevant. God\u2019s relevance and power are made real by our acts of righteousness.<\/p>\n

Does God Hear Our Prayers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, but only if we hear them too.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A classic joke by comic Emo Phillips captures our frustration with prayer. \u201cWhen I was a kid,\u201d he writes, \u201cI used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn’t work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.\u201d Emo was right. Prayer doesn\u2019t work…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":507,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDoes God Hear Our Prayers? - Truths You Can Use<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does God Hear Our Prayers? - Truths You Can Use\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A classic joke by comic Emo Phillips captures our frustration with prayer. \u201cWhen I was a kid,\u201d he writes, \u201cI used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn’t work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.\u201d Emo was right. 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