Do you believe God intervenes & answers prayers?

Post by **_Seven** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 6:22 pm

This question has been weighing on my mind after reading a horrific story of the torture and murder of a 2 year old boy Jamie Bulger. http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/bulger.asp

We see so many disturbing stories in the news everyday of innocent little children or good men and women who are kidnapped and tortured. After watching the movies "Hotel Ruwanda" and "Blood Diamond" I began to feel very insignificant to God. Why doesn't He care about these people?

Why do I think God would care about what I need if He allows all of these atrocities to happen?
My needs seem pretty shallow in comparison to the people and children crying out to God for help while He ignores their pleas. The innocent Jamie Bulger who was crying for his Mom while she is praying to God for help in finding her son, but He allowed these 10 year old boys to commit the most heinous crime on her little boy.

Why do we even bother asking God to help us? Why should we believe our prayers our so special that He would help us in whatever needs we have?

I know the TBM response would be that God can't interfere with our free agency.
If that is true, there would be no miracles in the scriptures and no stories of God saving anybody. If we believe the scriptures are true, then God does intervene with our agnecy. He picks and chooses who He will intervene with. LDS who believe God intervened with Priesthood blessings, or saved them in a car accident, : "what makes you think you are so special that God saved you, yet He allows all of these innocent children or families to be victims of the most horrific crimes imaginable?"

I believe in God and Jesus Christ, but I don't understand why we should pray for their blessings or help. I have an easier time believing God never intervenes, and allows nature to take its course. What are your beliefs?

If your prayers have been answered, why do you believe they were?

Post by **_bcspace** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 6:31 pm

Why do I think God would care about what I need if He allows all of these atrocities to happen?
My needs seem pretty shallow in comparison to the people and children crying out to God for help while He ignores their pleas. The innocent Jamie Bulger who was crying for his Mom while she is praying to God for help in finding her son, but He allowed these 10 year old boys to commit the most heinous crime on her little boy.

Why do we even bother asking God to help us? Why should we believe our prayers our so special that He would help us in whatever needs we have?

I know the TBM response would be that God can't interfere with our free agency.

Actually, while it is true that God doesn't interfere with our agency, I think the more germaine TBM response should be verses like D&C 122:7 and Ether 12:27.

Because God has an eternal perspective (He knows that you will live forever), He is far more concerned with the condition of your spirit than when and how you live and die in mortality (Matthew 10:28).

Post by **_Seven** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 6:42 pm

Actually, while it is true that God doesn't interfere with our agency, I think the more germaine TBM response should be verses like D&C 122:7 and Ether 12:27.

Because God has an eternal perspective (He knows that you will live forever), He is far more concerned with the condition of your spirit than when and how you live and die in mortality (Matthew 10:28).

Why do you believe God doesn't interfere with our agency if you believe in the scriptures? Would you agree that if He saves us from death or evil acts that He has intervened with anothers choice to harm us? What about when we make stupid choices?.......do you believe He has ever saved a person from harm and is that intervening with a consequence of our free agency?

Post by **_bcspace** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 7:05 pm

Why do you believe God doesn't interfere with our agency if you believe in the scriptures? Would you agree that if He saves us from death or evil acts that He has intervened with anothers choice to harm us?

No. The person still made the choice or has the mind to harm but was thwarted (and given another chance to re-think their life).

Post by **_Seven** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 7:10 pm

bcspace wrote:
Why do you believe God doesn't interfere with our agency if you believe in the scriptures? Would you agree that if He saves us from death or evil acts that He has intervened with anothers choice to harm us?

No. The person still made the choice or has the mind to harm but was thwarted (and given another chance to re-think their life).

With that logic, then God knows evil choices that are going to be made and knows the evil in ones heart. Why does he allow some to follow through with their acts and not others?

Post by **_bcspace** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 7:56 pm

With that logic, then God knows evil choices that are going to be made and knows the evil in ones heart. Why does he allow some to follow through with their acts and not others?

I think there are several plausible reasons but all are subordinate to this one. And that is that God, knowing our weaknesses and what we can and cannot overcome spiritually always ensures that we are in a position to succeed in that area AND stretches our ability and faith so that we can be saved in the Celestial Kingdom. Applies to both the victim and the perpetrator.

Post by **_Quantumwave** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:52 pm

Do you believe God intervenes & answers prayers?

NO!!!!

Post by **_Mary** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:06 am

Why do I think God would care about what I need if He allows all of these atrocities to happen?
My needs seem pretty shallow in comparison to the people and children crying out to God for help while He ignores their pleas. The innocent Jamie Bulger who was crying for his Mom while she is praying to God for help in finding her son, but He allowed these 10 year old boys to commit the most heinous crime on her little boy

.

Seven, are you from the UK?
My colleague worked with one of the (very)) young killers of Jamie Bulger. Just out of interest, she described him as 'cold, emotionally'. Did any good come out of this horrible event? The children were avid watchers of horror movies like Chucky, and I think it brought home hard just how much these kind of films can influence young minds, particularly if they have a psychopathic personality.

I don't have any easy answers for what you are saying in regard to the way God works. I really don't. Life is brutal, violent and short, but it is also beautiful, interesting and joyful. Despite how life is, we all seem to be able to create an internal reality in which we can live with and survive it.

I'd like to think that if God does exist that he was with Jamie Bulger, and any other human being that is subject to pain and suffering. I know my father, who suffered a long cancer illness (and wasn't particularly religious) became serene and at peace as he came to terms with his own iminent and quite painful demise. Whether there is a God without or not, I think we all have a God within that helps us to cope with whatever life throws at us.

Just a few incoherant musings!!
Mary

Post by **_Trinity** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 2:16 pm

Miss Taken wrote:

I don't have any easy answers for what you are saying in regard to the way God works. I really don't. Life is brutal, violent and short, but it is also beautiful, interesting and joyful. Despite how life is, we all seem to be able to create an internal reality in which we can live with and survive it.

Mary

How does suicide fit into that? Obviously, these people are/were incapable of creating that internal reality that helps them survive.

Post by **_Mary** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 8:21 pm

How does suicide fit into that? Obviously, these people are/were incapable of creating that internal reality that helps them survive.

Good point. Having gone through some pretty severe 'teengage' angst myself, that age in particular seems to be a time of adjusting (or not) to the realities of adult life.