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From: aeq@pucc-h (Jeff Sargent)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Explanations for Bob
Message-ID: <694@pucc-h>
Date: Thu, 3-May-84 10:19:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.694
Posted: Thu May  3 10:19:43 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 5-May-84 01:22:23 EDT
References: <431@opus.UUCP>
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 32

From Dick Dunn:

> [The miraculous recovery of David Norris's friend] is exactly the sort of
> direct "pray-for-results" approach that you and others have been telling us
> won't work.  (I don't think it should, either - it just makes prayer a
> cheap bargaining ploy.)

Au contraire!  The situation is quite different.  The test that was suggested
recently (i.e. pray, say, for certain stock prices to behave in a certain way
-- or, another suggestion I've heard, pray for the recovery of patients in
Hospital A but not those in Hospital B) is exactly that -- a test, not a
prayer.  In such a test, the participants probably would care not at all about
the people they were "praying" for/about.  The prayers that contributed to the
healing of David's friend were of a quite different sort:  Those praying were
not in the least interested in putting God to the test (which we're told not
to do, anyway); they wanted the guy healed, because they liked him and loved
him.  Thus, their prayers were real prayers.

And prayer of this sort SHOULD work.  God is our friend.  Prayer of this type
is just telling your best friend what you need/want.  In your friendships with
humans, your friends usually can't help you until you admit your need/want.
Similarly, until you humble yourself and admit to God what you need/want, God
may not satisfy that need/want.  The apostle James wrote, "You don't have
because you don't ask!"  Jesus said something approximately as follows:  "Ask
the Father anything in My name, and it shall be done for you."  Your friends
are undoubtedly willing to help you if you ask for it; how much more is God
willing and waiting to demonstrate His love in all the ways you need it!

-- 
-- Jeff Sargent
{allegra|ihnp4|decvax|harpo|seismo|ucbvax}!pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq
"Rivers belong where they can ramble..."