urge to pray - advice/help

[Ziploc Surprise]

God sends dreams and visions?

Now you have to say the magic words before god responds?

Are you sure you're not just making this up as you go along?

The magic words (and magic actions for that matter) excuse has been around for a long time. Preachers have to come up with new words or actions every now and then because the old words and actions fail to do the trick. I remember hearing a prosperity doctrine preacher saying that the reason why "your miracle breakthrough" (she was speaking to the audience) hasn't come through for you is that when you put your money in the plate you didn't release your faith. All I thought at that moment was a hypothetical situation where someone gave $100 that they couldn't afford to give and forgot to use the magic words. I imagined it like this: "gee so I just wasted $100 because I forgot to do that. Oops, silly me. Thanks for the tip, I'll remember that next time I give my sacrificial gift of money to the church instead of use it for necessities. Oh, and Hey, if this step was so important that it just made me waste $100 that I really couldn't afford to waste, why couldn't you have mentioned this at the beginning?"


In his defense, Brotherlylove wasn't actually talking about magic words. He was taking an approach to prayer that is opposite that of the prosperity doctrine. To say "speak for your servant is listening" is to absolve god from any responsibility for taking care of the material needs of his children and only concentrate on the spiritual. Church doctrine is very contradictory on this. For human beings with a physical body to maintain it's hard to just have a spiritual relationship. The physical needs must be be addressed or things will go south rather quickly. (BTW I realize that I'm speaking as if the body soul and mind were separate things that can somehow exist without each other. This does not mean that I actually believe this. It is just something that comes up when you are dealing with the concept of needs, i.e. physical and spiritual needs.)

Also when it comes to needs there exist more needs than just your needs and god's needs. let's say for example that you go on a 40 day fast. You are happy and satisfied because you have all you need to be happy and satisfied - you don't need food. Your boss might have a different opinion. She might not want you to be dizzy and lethargic. She might want you to have clarity of mind. Is she supposed to yield to god at this point?