Thoughts on Prayer

I have asked dozens of Christians to offer their single best example of an obvious supernatural intervention by God as a direct result of a prayer that they have uttered.
This request has largely been met with the sound of crickets:
1 - They usually ignore my request.
2 - Some will preemptively claim that I will mock or minimize their examples of answered prayer ~ and / or ~ say that they will not cast their "pearls before swine" (gee thanks).
3 - I have had exactly one (1) Christian (in his mid 30's) offer his example: When he was 4 years old, his grandmother prayed that God would remove a wart from his head. When he awoke the next morning, the wart was gone. I had to give him credit for at least answering my request for an example - but his example was from 30 years earlier, and wasn't even a prayer that he uttered, and his example relied on the memories from when he was age four, memories that have been influenced by the retelling of this story over and over for his entire life for crying out loud!  What has God done for you lately?

I was a praying, bible believing Christian for about 25 years. During my entire Christian experience I could not point to even a single prayer that I ever uttered, that was obviously answered by God - not a single one.

As a Christian, when I looked at the lives of all the Christians that I worshiped with, fellow-shipped with, prayed with, I could not point to a single example of obvious answered prayer that any of them experienced.

Now, as an atheist, former bible believing Christian, looking back I cannot point to a single prayer that I or any of my Christian friends ever uttered, that could even hypothetically be considered as answered by God - not a single one.

Christians love to claim that God answers prayer, yet He never answered a single one of mine, and I never witnessed Him answering a single prayer of any of my many Christian brothers and sisters.

Why ?

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Have you ever actually listened to people when they pray?

Many years ago, when I was a good Baptist, I came across a book, I believe it was titled "Conversational Prayer" by Rosalind Rinker. One thing from that book that stuck with me then and has stuck with me all these years since, was the notion that - if prayer was simply a Christian having an honest conversation with God, shouldn't the Christian just have a conversation like they would have a with anyone?  If God is listening, just talk to him.

Ever since then, when I listen to anyone pray (and that isn't very often) I find myself looking at the clock and begin timing, and as they are praying, I count how many times the prayer includes "God, Father, Jesus, or Lord".

So imagine that you run into Frank in the hallway and you strike up a conversation with him - how many times, as you are talking to Frank, are you going to say his name? You might start out your conversation with "Hi Frank", and you might end your conversation with "See ya later Frank", but it is very unlikely that you will say his name to him more than once or twice during your entire conversation with him. It would actually be weird if you peppered your conversation with Frank by saying Frank, or Franklin, or Frankie-boy over and over again, at the beginning and end of just about every sentence that you said to him. If you did, Frank would very likely, from then on, avoid any future conversations with you.

If you attend church regularly, just try listening to your minister as he prays before delivering his sermon, or perhaps listen to one of the people that he calls upon to offer a prayer before, or after the sermon.  When they begin to pray, look at your watch and keep track of the time that they began the prayer, and then count every time that they say "God, Father, Jesus, or Lord".  Once the prayer is over, take note of the time.

On the occasional Sunday morning I will stop channel-surfing long enough to listen to some TV / church minister. I will often dare them to try to surprise me - they never do.
This past Sunday I did this exercise for the umpteenth time while I had the TV on the Thomas Rhodes Baptist Church service pastor'd by the Rev. Johnathan Falwell. He began to pray (I don't remember if it was at the beginning or end of the sermon) and I looked at the clock. His prayer was about 2 1/2 minutes long and he said "God, Father, Jesus, or Lord" at least 20 times during those 2 1/2 minutes. The math indicates that during his conversation with God (that is who he was talking to, correct?) on the average he addressed God, the person or being that he was talking to, by his name or his title, once every 7.5 seconds.

I suspect that there are Christians who don't pray this way, and honestly, I don't know exactly what this says about people who DO pray this way, other than, they are likely just praying the way they heard people pray when they were a child, and they have been praying this silly, weird way their entire adult life and likely will continue.  They are NOT having a conversation with God - they are practicing a Christian ritual, plain and simple.

Just try it, the next time someone starts to pray, glance at the clock and count - heck - turn it into a drinking game, and if your sensibilities are to tender for bourbon or vodka, use communion wine - drink a shot every time the praying Christian refers to God by name or title (be safe, don't drink and drive).

Update 2/13/22:  Another Johnathan Falwell prayer - lasted 90 seconds - said "God, Father, Jesus, or Lord" 16 times - that's every 5.6 seconds, beating his previous record.  After the next song another man prayed - lasted 75 seconds but he said "God, Father, Jesus, or Lord" only 6 times, so every 12.5 seconds - not bad, not bad at all.

Update 11/25/22:  I just listened to a sermon of a friend of mine, Don, taped back in 2021.  At the end he closed with a prayer that lasted about 65 seconds and he called on "God" or "Lord" or "Father" six times, so about every 11 seconds.

Update 7/26/23:  Just listened to Ashley Key, co-host on the 700 Club, offer a 2:10 prayer that included God, Lord, Jesus, Father, and Holy Spirit 19 times.  That's every 6.8 seconds.  I believe we have a winner!

bob
r.u.reasonable@gmail.com