Do you say prayers?

I pray but I don't think we should pray asking for things. although the bible says keep asking. When I pray, I only give thanks. nothing more than that.

I pray every night. My mother used to hear my prayers every bedtime.
Gentle Jesus meek and mild,
look upon a little child,
pity my simplicity,
suffer me to come to thee.
Please Jesus make me a good girl.
Amen

I was once with a friend going to a concert. We were cutting it fine time-wise as we waited in the queue to get into the car park. We made it by the skin of our teeth and my friend said “I knew we’d make it as I was sitting in the car praying for God to find us a car park space” ……. Whaaaaaatttttt????????

Well said * hippychick*

Marmight

No - only when in a desperate situation but from whom or what I invoke help I haven’t a clue. 5 hard years at a convent boarding school finished organised religion for me but I do find peace and consolation in choral music especially in a cathedral or church setting.

@Marmight. You don’t need organised religion.
All you need is Our Father God, Jesus, and your Bible.

Don’t let those nuns rob you of a beautiful experience with Christ.

I don’t pray regularly and grew up without a religious background, but agree with those who feel there is, or may be, a higher power. I sometimes think this higher power has gone on holiday and ,left us to it.
My DH was a true believer, unlike me with my doubts, and I envied that simplicity.
The sermon on the mount distills what I feel and man made organised religion has its faults which are all too evident. I try to think that God is love, not a paternal father figure in the heavens and there is a little bit of God in everyone. If we try to look at others in this way, we will see them differently.
.
When awestruck in nature, the thought of a higher power is at its strongest.
I love reading spiritual/mystical writings and find them very inspiring, even if I question them.
My absolute heroine is Sister Wendy and I’m reading her letters at the moment. She sums up for me a truly godly person. The goodness just shone out of her.

I’m another who can sit for ages alone in a quiet church, just light a candle and reflect.

No - only when in a desperate situation but from whom or what I invoke help I haven’t a clue. 5 hard years at a convent boarding school finished organised religion for me but I do find peace and consolation in choral music especially in a cathedral or church setting.

I love sitting in church after I have locked up, in semi darkness, with just the light from the votive candles.
It soothes the soul.

I knew a woman who had managed to complete nursing training, which had long been an ambition of hers, but was giving it up to go and work in a mission in Cyprus. She was a lovely woman, and had seen two separate references to this mission needing helpers, so she said that she first prayed that they would get helpers, then after the second reference ( in a magazine at the dentist’s if I remember correctly) she prayed again, asking God to send her a sign if he meant that she was to go. She said she told him what the sign was to be, and the sign came, so she gave up her job, house, everything, and went to Cyprus. I was amazed to hear her say she didn’t want to go, but if it was the Lord’s will, she must do it. She worked in the mission for many years until she died.
I have never encountered such faith before or since.

crazyH

When we were growing up, we always got together for the family. ‘Rosary’- in front of our altar. It was a bit monotonous and repetitive. These days, although I carry the Roasary Beads in my handbag, I do not have the patience. I go to Church, I pray, but it’s more of a ‘chat’ with God. I do say a short poem-like prayer and the same in the morning. Our church is always open. If I happen to pass by, I always pop in for a few minutes.

I love to sit in church, and am lucky to have a beautiful wee chapel near my home for visits. I always remember one of my granny’s sayings -
‘ Every time I pass the church, I try to pay a visit
So that, when I’m carried in, the Lord won’t say, ‘Who is it?’ ‘.

Yes I pray most nights, but I can’t kneel.
Sometimes through the day if it’s called for.

I pray for family and friends that have difficult situations going on in their lives.

I pray for things going on in the world.

I thank God that I have enough to eat and drink and that I have a comfy warm bed.

I pray that somehow everyone else has managed to get something to eat and drink that day.

I was really thankful for my friends and family holding me in their prayers when I was in hospital earlier this year having half my pancreas removed due to a tumour.

I’m no angel I’m just an ordinary person with lots of flaws but I know God loves me despite me being me.

I hate religion but I do love Jesus and I have had many answers to prayers.

I’m going through chemo at the moment and it’s reassuring to know that God is just a prayer away.

I pray daily for people , myself and my deceased sister and my deceased sister and also for dehydration and starvation times that people have to endure and I myself have to endure. People don't get involved, because they can't help you .Do you want to know why? It's because they can't help themselves. Ro say you are Baptized, confirmed and claim to be a Christian is easy. If someone says to you out of the blue excuse me I have no money and food and I am starving, what do you say and what do you do? You say sorry I can't help you. Think, afterwards you often say to yourself a Christian person would feed the person because they have a moral obligation to do so. Also, a person needs to be fed like yourself. Next time feed them . You will be rewarded with Gods love and blessings. Through the acts of the fruit of the spirit it is how you become power in your mental fortitude.

I pray every day too. Morning and evening and many other times in between. Can kneel anymore as I won’t get up after but I did use to kneel and pray for many years.

Yes, what harm can it do?

Yes I pray. Not kneeling by my bed but in my bed at night at before I get up in the morning.

Yes

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.

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.

Daily

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.

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'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!

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 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.

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.