Anyone Coping with Prayer?

[Scarlet]

I don't want to turn this into a religious debate as I know that for many people, prayer isn't a part of their lives. And that's ok - I make no judgements.

I'd just like to know if anyone is using prayer to help them through this struggle, and if they would feel comfortable talking about it.

 

[Dana]

Everybody prays, consciously or not, believer in God or not.
Everybody wishes they get rid of their T, and what is the difference from "wishing" and "praying"? I do not see any.
When we "wish" for healing to happen (as opposed to "expecting" to heal as a sure consequence of a certain treatment), we actually "pray". We can't wish for something without addressing that wish to something/somebody. We ask for healing from "the future (development of things)", which is unknown, infinitely complex, with too many variables, beyond our comprehension. Some refer to that as "God's work", some do not, but it is the same thing.

 

[jeannie]

Yes I pray everyday.

 

[Sailboardman]

I pray everyday and sometimes wonder, do any of our prayers get through, or just wind up in some gigantic, prayer shredder?

 

[bill 112]

I was an extremely Religious person even after I got T.But after all the things that happened to me I have completely lost my faith in God and the sad thing is I know I'll never get it back.

 

[Dana]

But after all the things that happened to me I have completely lost my faith in God and the sad thing is I know I'll never get it back.

The same thing happened to me. After some tragic things happened in my life, that were so unfair and so insanely cruel, I lost my faith in God. I think that I suffered so much when those tragedies happened because they made me realise there can't be any fair, good God up there that can allow this to happen, so there is no "guardian". Anything , no matter how bad, can happen, and the realisation that God does not exist (the idea of his existence is incompatible with the suffering and the unfairness on this Earth) seemed to me more painful than the tragedies themselves. When I realised there can't be a God, cause by definition He is good, and He can't let very bad things happen to good, innocent souls, while letting evil people thrive, i felt gutted.
And after that I got T, to top it all off.

I could have taken everything bad that happened to me easier if I only knew why I had to have this destiny. What did I do? What is the rational?
If I only knew a reason, it would be so much easier for me.
The lack of the answer to the question "why?" is the most difficult thing to bear.

 

[JasonP]

Something else to consider is would prayer, repentance, fasting, and being a faithful servant of God make prayers more likely to be answered?

 

[ibelievetoo]

Considering all of the above comments. I sat here late last night or early morning whichever seems convenient, but, wondering if I could rest enough to make it to Church. I prayed, read some in the Bible. I have been thinking about the scripture which speaks about the faith as a grain of mustard seed and what it can accomplish for us. The very next verse says, "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting". When things get so bad sometimes, as this happens to all of us. My Mom, then husband, then Dad all passed within a short period of time. With no brothers, sisters or children I was given the strength to take care of them at home. After that, I got T. All alone. I started praying and fasting. To do without food or water for a few days. I did 3 days. I became so humbled and accepting of God's will for my life. Yes, your body gets weak, Dr's. I'm sure may frown upon - but it works. He is still in control. That's why,
ibelievetoo

 

[Blackbird26]

It seems no matter how far I wander I find my way back.

I prayed, earnestly prayed today. I hope he has some mercy on me.

 

[JasonP]

Considering all of the above comments. I sat here late last night or early morning whichever seems convenient, but, wondering if I could rest enough to make it to Church. I prayed, read some in the Bible. I have been thinking about the scripture which speaks about the faith as a grain of mustard seed and what it can accomplish for us. The very next verse says, "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting". When things get so bad sometimes, as this happens to all of us. My Mom, then husband, then Dad all passed within a short period of time. With no brothers, sisters or children I was given the strength to take care of them at home. After that, I got T. All alone. I started praying and fasting. To do without food or water for a few days. I did 3 days. I became so humbled and accepting of God's will for my life. Yes, your body gets weak, Dr's. I'm sure may frown upon - but it works. He is still in control. That's why,
ibelievetoo

What is interesting about that word "faith" in the Greek can also mean "faithfulness" which gives it an entire different meaning. We must remember He was probably speaking in Aramaic and then this was translated into Greek. It is an interesting study. I wish more people were into studying deep into the Bible around where I live.

 

[Tweaker]

Tinnitus certainly rocked my faith but this is how I see it. There is no easy answer to suffering and why a loving God should allow it. But I do believe that God cares enough to Himself become a part of our suffering world in the person of Jesus. Whenever I doubt God's love, and sometime I do, then I look again to the cross. This world is a broken world but I trust in Him and the hope of a better world beyond.

 

[PaulBe]

Something else to consider is would prayer, repentance, fasting, and being a faithful servant of God make prayers more likely to be answered?

Kubler-Ross would have called this "bargaining".

 

[PaulBe]

This world is a broken world but I trust in Him and the hope of a better world beyond.

At the height of its temporal power the Christian Church sold hope for a better life in the unknowable afterward, to justify the rape and pillage of the people in the life of the knowable now. This still goes on in other parts of the religious spectrum today.

 

[Sara_Bond]

If there is a God, there is also a Devil.

Maybe the Devil brought us T? I mean who else than the Devil told me to go to have a drink in a night club when I was tired,woke up at 5am the same day, wanted to spend the evening with my nephews and just wanted to have some rest? He told me: go ahead, you'll sleep on Church Day tomorrow.

And the battle was there, cause God sent me some signs: my ear was already aching in my car when leaving my place, then we were told that there were too many people inside the bar etc...

But the Devil got me: Then I had T. And then I never slept like an angel again.

Prayers are saving me from going crazy.

 

[undecided]

@Sara_Bond it is very unlikely that God and the devil devoted one entire afternoon managing your clubbing habits, trying to work up the best strategy to "get" you...

 

[fitActive04]

I think all religions are silly. They are led by silly characters wearing silly hats believing in silly things. People have a difficult time accepting the idea that maybe once you're dead - poof, game over. They have a hard time accepting the idea that maybe the good people are not enternally rewarded and the bad people are not eternally punished.

In any case, I do not practice prayer but I think prayer can help people who actually think it does something. It's like a psychological tool. Most often, people turn to prayer when something is completely out of their control and they lack the emotional stability to deal with the problem and accept the facts. Eventually, this turns into what I call the Spiritual Catch 22. Suppose a family member is near death. If that family member lives, the relgious people say it was a miracle due to praying. If the family member dies, it's "God's will" . That's really convenient.

If I ever get sick, skip the prayers and find me a good doctor.

 

[Scarlet]

Thank you. I appreciate everyone's responses.

 

[Engineer]

There's a book by C.S. Lewis titled 'The problem of pain' that discusses the topic of pain and suffering from the Christian point of view

 

[RicoS]

I get confused... people in religious families die and they morn .....WHY???? You believe in a god so you should be happy cause they are with god and have a great party and after your suffering with T here on earth you can join the big party....so why do people get so sad when somebody dies.....It is the will of God and they join there beloved father in heaven for ever and ever. Should there not be a party for everybody who dies and believes in God. Sorry I am not joking I wondered about this a lot because I went to a religious school when I was young.

People say when something bad happens to them it is a test of God .....to see if you have faith in him. But when something good occurs in their lives they thank God. If God exist I think he is very selfish .... if he made me...he knows he did not made a perfect person. How boring would that be ...if we were all without sin or are doing all the same things day in and day out because it is his will. If he is all knowing and all powerful he does not need me.
If he is our father than take care of your fucking children....like I have to do for my child. I do not say to my son that he has to pray to me every day..... When my son is sick I take care of him and it is not God who makes him better. I play with my son and give him food....I am a real father for my child not an imaginary friend.

I train MMA fighters....and they thank me when they win their fights...but I really do not understand why some fighters stand there in the ring saying "First I want to thank God ....bla bla bla" ...thank your damn trainer and coach who trained you the whole damn time....God did not do that for you , your trainingpartners, trainer and coach helped you where you are to this day in the sport. And if both fighter ask God for strength...he only listens to one because there is always a winner and looser..... and I never here the looser thank God for his loss.

Do I pray.....yes I do....but I think it is more wishful thinking but I understand the reality of life....life ain't fair...and I cannot blame everything to a Devil when something bad happens or say God is testing me. I have to pick myself up and together with friends I try to enjoy life as much as possible and take care of my son and wife. Perhaps when you accomplish something people should give their self more credit instead of thanking God for it.

Really I wish I could be that naive and pray to something that I never seen in my life...but people think you are crazy when you say you saw an UFO but believe in God who nobody ever saw...They believe that a burning bush can talk to Moses but an UFO is not real . God spoke to Moses through a burning bush....really if I say this on live television..."PEOPLE LISTEN TO ME GOD TALKED TO ME THROUGH THIS BURNING CAN OF PEPSI COKE AND HE WANTS PEACE FOR US ALL AND HE WANTS AN EIGHT DAY IN THE WEEK CALLED WAKEDAY AFTER SUNDAY. OH AND BY THE WAY HE WILL SEND ME AN E-MAIL WITH 10 THINGS HE DOES NOT WANT YOU TO DO, BUT I LET YOU PEOPLE KNOW WHEN I GOT THAT BECAUSE INTERNET IS DOWN NOW BECAUSE I DID NOT PAY MY BILLS" They would lock me up in some kind of asylum.

There is so much hunger and war in the world ...where is God to fix those problems....his children die by the dozen and he does not show his face. A father who does not want to see his children has to pay child support but I see nothing on my bankaccount and neither do people who believe in him.

If he exist and I die and I see him and he tells me...listen son...why did you not believe in me....Well dad...you were not there for me and my ears were ringing like crazy so I was busy with that. But ok in all fairness you do exist so sorry that I did not believe in you, but you did not give me a lot to work with either. But let it all be water under the bridge and I am glad there is something after this life. A good father would forgive his child and not let him burn for ever and ever in doom and gloom and tinnitus....So I am not much worried about that because like a good father he would not prefer one child over the other only because he thinks different. A good father loves all his children even if they have faith in him or not. But I am not a bad sport and I would apologize to him and hang out with friends and what ever they do there...baking cookies...throw a ball....I hope there is PS4 or something otherwise it would be a boring place.....I wonder if there is T in heaven.....or OCD ....well lets ask somebody who has been there.......eeeeehhhh well ....eeeehhhhh......it must be very fun their because nobody came back and told somebody.
We listen in church to some guy who also never been in heaven but he knows all about it.....that is called a good salesmen. But he is just a guy just like you and me wearing clothes and also enjoys sex because he is made that way...it is just nature and nothing to feel ashamed about.

I understand you want to believe there is something after you die and that gives you strength and hope or something, but I prefer to live in the now and if that is not ok than God is a selfish prick. I want to enjoy my son and take care of my family and enjoy the company of friends. I know I am not a bad person and always help people in need. So why do I get T and a depression....well because life is just life...you have happy moments and you have bad moments. I worked to hard for to long never giving myself a break and the result was T...and I still went on and than I got a depression and slowly I get out of it and see the good things in life again.

If you need your believe in God to pull you through...by all means do....like I said I wish I could be that naive. At least you have some morals when you grow up so I think it is a good thing. I loved all stories in the bible....I also like cartoons and action movies and Game of Thrones etc....I see it for what it is ...stories who are written down by people and have been rewritten and reinterpreted a 100 times. But that does not mean I do not enjoy them. I have faith by experience ....If I see the Back to silence method works I believe in that..... I need some foundation before I spend some time on it.

Wishing or praying.... just do what you think helps... if you believe in God ...Believe...if you don't...do not....just respect each other ...and if God reads my post I think he understands my point of view....he made me so he understands where I am coming from

 

[Alue]

I was an extremely Religious person even after I got T.But after all the things that happened to me I have completely lost my faith in God and the sad thing is I know I'll never get it back.

Lost my faith about 5 years ago. Wish I could get it back but I can't just shut off the rational, skeptical, part of my mind.

I have no problems with whatever people choose to believe (as long as they don't force it on others), for what it's worth I have known people that were helped by their belief, but for me it never worked like that.

 

[volsung37]

The only point in suffering is to make us better people - less selfish and more compassionate. Some people choose to believe God is somehow behind this and it helps them. Some don't. The thing is to become less selfish and more compassionate. I have prayed - usually for God to take my life. Thankfully He hasn't paid too much attention

 

[Sara_Bond]

it is very unlikely that God and the devil devoted one entire afternoon managing your clubbing habits, trying to work up the best strategy to "get" you...

Take it on the literal sense or in a metaphoric way: God/Devil, good/evil, Luck/bad luck, fortune/misfortune, destiny/fate etc... Actually, that is my way to see it.
Maybe you don't believe in God or whatsoever, it's an internal conflict that a lot of people here were faced/ are facing to (if only I listened to me blablabla...).

Your ironical comment was not on point. How do you know me to allegedly suppose that clubbing was a "habit"? Don't judge people on their beliefs and their life, cause you don't know them, even talking daily with them through a forum. Don't laugh at them when they are trying to answer to the author of the post.

I take it seriously: if people do really believe in God, what's wrong with that? People do believe in doctors/science when they are not even able today to find a cure for T. Lol.

I'm not here to introduce any debate. I respect people and their opinions/beliefs. I just don't care about debating I have enough to do with my own life, I come here to find solutions/comfort. Period.

 

[Sebastians]

@RicoS

You train MMA fighters? Could you point out a good training programme for mass and strength building plz. Kinda stuck in a rut with my gym routine and not making gainz anymore.

Coudn't care less about religion and prayer, but if it helps some people to cope, it's their business.
I find strength in Buddhism, which teaches not to frantically cling onto life and accept suffering as a part on the intransience of things.

 

[undecided]

@Sara_Bond

My comment was not ironic, I just poked a little fun at you thinking that God or the devil were giving you signs as to how to spent your afternoon. Hope you didn't interpret it as offensive.

 

[Dana]

If I ever get sick, skip the prayers and find me a good doctor.

So you do not consider yourself sick with this T that you remained after the head trauma? That's good, cause had you considered yourself sick, there would have been some bad news for you: there isn't in the whole wide world a doctor good enough to resolve your T caused by the head injury. If healing can come only from the knowledge/intervention of a good doctor, i am afraid that you will have this T for the rest of your life. I hope you have the psychological stability to accept this fact. If you do not, do not worry. Healing can happen not only thanks to good doctors, but thanks to the miraculous things that the human body can do.
Doctors' knowledge is very small regarding to the complexity of what's going on in a body, and, because they know that, they pray a lot for their patients' own healing powers, some of them in order to add the success obtained in this way to their own reputation.
But fortunately MOST of the doctors acknowledge that they pray a lot.

 

[fitActive04]

So you do not consider yourself sick with this T that you remained after the head trauma? That's good, cause had you considered yourself sick, there would have been some bad news for you: there isn't in the whole wide world a doctor good enough to resolve your T caused by the head injury. If healing can come only from the knowledge/intervention of a good doctor, i am afraid that you will have this T for the rest of your life. I hope you have the psychological stability to accept this fact. If you do not, do not worry. Healing can happen not only thanks to good doctors, but thanks to the miraculous things that the human body can do.
Doctors' knowledge is very small regarding to the complexity of what's going on in a body, and, because they know that, they pray a lot for their patients' own healing powers, some of them in order to add the success obtained in this way to their own reputation.
But fortunately MOST of the doctors acknowledge that they pray a lot.

I'm sorry, I missed the part where I said doctors can cure T. Where did I imply such a thing? I simply said, if I'm sick, I would choose a doctor over prayer.

Doctor's pray? I don't care what doctors do in their free time. I don't care if a doctor is Christian, Muslim, Atheist or worships the sun and moon. I just want them to be well-studied, qualified, and an expert in their craft.

Besides, I find your power to be quite incredible. This ability to know what goes on in the minds of all doctors. That's impressive. I, for one, am just a mere mortal. Unable to read the minds of all doctors throughout the world.

 

[Sara_Bond]

@undecided

That's ok, sometimes we don't feel the intonation through writing. We are all in the same boat, let's support each other and "pray" we will be healed one day.

 

[Lorac]

I tried praying in the beginning but the prayers were not answered. Maybe God has hearing loss and loud tinnitus?

 

[NavsPH]

 

[Dana]

@fitActive04

I'm sorry, I missed the part where I said doctors can cure T

Sorry, but how can you wonder whether you said something or not, you have your own text under your eyes, can't you verify? Or that is you "being ironic"? Anyway, no, you did NOT say "doctors can cure T". You seem to brag with the fact that you did NOT say that "doctors can cure T", but sometimes they can. There are two accounts on this forum alone about two surgeons that resolved T cases. One fixed three stenosis in the blood vessels in the head, one fixed one valve of the heart that was creating the T.
Anyway...

Doctor's pray?

Some do, yes. And not in their "free time", but especially in relation to their practice. Many famous surgeons that are doing serious surgeries acknowledged that they pray. I am not talking about the doctors that prescribe a pill for a cold. Those I do not think that they pray re the success of their treatment.

Besides, I find your power to be quite incredible. This ability to know what goes on in the minds of all doctors. That's impressive. I, for one, am just a mere mortal. Unable to read the minds of all doctors throughout the world.

Excuse me, that's "irony" again? Oops!
Let me try to emulate your ironic style, i mean if I can:

I'm sorry, I missed the part where I said that I know what goes on in the minds of ALL doctors.

How did that sound? Not very good, IMO.
Anyway, I did not say, nor imply, in my post, that I know "what goes on in the minds of ALL doctors". I was referring to the praying most serious doctors do, when treating serious cases, not to the ones that prescribe an aspirin. I did not think that it was necessary to specify that, I thought that this is understood without saying.

Doctors' knowledge is very small regarding to the complexity of what's going on in a body, and, because they know that, they pray a lot for their patients' own healing powers, some of them in order to add the success obtained in this way to their own reputation.
But fortunately MOST of the doctors acknowledge that they pray a lot

I thought that is quite clear that I am not talking about cases of colds in the quote above.

Never crossed my mind that anybody would do such a cheap move and exploit the fact that I did not specify that I am talking about doctors who deal with severe cases, and will write a long winded "ironic" paragraph that I could not believe my eyes.

Besides, I find your power to be quite incredible. This ability to know what goes on in the minds of all doctors. That's impressive. I, for one, am just a mere mortal. Unable to read the minds of all doctors throughout the world.

Same irony, I suppose.
I do not "read the minds of all doctors", you "ironic" wannabe.
I know that many famous doctors that deal with severe cases and do difficult surgeries pray. And doctors who deal with severe infections or other severe conditions also pray. And how I got to know it is not "impressive" at all, Mr "ironic". I just listened to what they said when reporters went to take them an interview. They pray before the surgery, and in the difficult time right after a difficult surgery, when they find out if they saved or killed the patient. They pray for the patient's life, for their own skin and for their reputation.
I repeat, I did not think that mentioning that I do NOT refer to the kind of doctors that do easy stuff, stuff that does not carry any risk and responsibility, is necessary.

If I ever get sick, skip the prayers and find me a good doctor.

That sounded like that is your wish when you get so sick that you cannot find a good doctor for yourself, for example when you get unconscious or can't move, or you are near death. If NOT praying for your life is so important for you, you must add to your wish that an ATHEIST doctor is found for you, otherwise he may do himself some of those prayers so abhorred by you. And good doctors for severe cases are mostly not atheists (as they confess in interviews), cause they care about their patients' lives and they know they are not almighty.
Any doctor who intervenes in a serious case and thinks that he has everything in his hands, that it all depends on him, is an idiot, not "a good doctor".

I just want them (the doctors) to be well-studied, qualified, and an expert in their craft.

If you are near death, besides a doctor who is " well-studied, qualified, an expert in their field" and other redundant synonyms, you need good luck, all the studies, the drugs and the equipment in the world are not enough. I understand that you think that you do not need good luck or anything else besides the studies of the good doctor, that those are enough for you. How ignorant you are! But then again, you said that you are a mere mortal. I'll take that as an excuse for your ignorance and pompous attitude.
You twisted my words in order to ridicule them. Not an honorable thing to do.