Where do unanswered prayers go?

[katia]

are they heard?

[cindianna_jones]

I believe that prayer is good for the believer regardless the outcome.  It gives them hope for something better.

You and I just have to garner our own hope don't we Katia?

Cindi

[BeverlyAnn]

My parents didn't raise me to ask God for blessings or benefits. For guidance, yes. For the strength to do the right thing, yes. Not for a winning lottery number, not for love or health, or happiness. Prayer is not a gimme list; God isn't Santa Claus.

Dean Koontz

[RebeccaFog]

    There are no unanswered prayers, Sweetheart [she said in a voice hauntingly like that of Humphrey Bogart], Sometimes people refuse to believe the answer is "no".

    She pulled the collar of her trench coat closer in order to keep out the cold and to hide the fact that her body was evidence of a prayer denied. A soggy humid mist kept her tears from being viewed by bystanders.


                                                                                                                  The endish.

[tinkerbell]

They taught me that God hears all prayers although sometimes His answer is "no".

tink

[The Middle Way]

They go wherever the odd socks from the wash go.

[Elizabeth]

They taught me that God hears all prayers although sometimes His answer is "no".

tink

Well, that is not what Jesus said.

Mathew21-22.      

And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

I prayed many times believing and my prayers were not answered. When I asked why I was told it was because I didn't have faith. In other words, I didn't really believe. Knowing that was not the case, I determined it was all a crock.

Love always,
Elizabeth

[RebeccaFog]

They go wherever the odd socks from the wash go.

Just because a sock is different, doesn't make it 'odd'.   

[katia]

to the recycle bin?  >

[David W. Shelton]

Great topic! It's better in the Spirituality section though... so I moved it here.

My thoughts: God is not the "vending machine in the sky." But then, I tend to think that not all prayer is unanswered. Sometimes they're answered, sometimes they're delayed...

And sometimes the answer is, "no."

Great posts, everyone. Keep it up!

[The Middle Way]

They go wherever the odd socks from the wash go.

Just because a sock is different, doesn't make it 'odd'.   

heh

Alternately, they goes wherever the even sox go, then.

[Shana A]

I think they go to the same place in the universe that important files go when the computer crashes before you saved.

zythyra

[RebeccaFog]

I think they go to the same place in the universe that important files go when the computer crashes before you saved.

zythyra

God has blue screened.

[Thundra]

There are no unanswered prayers, Sweetheart [she said in a voice hauntingly like that of Humphrey Bogart], Sometimes people refuse to believe the answer is "no".

That is clever, but I think that it is more like, we get what we need in answer to our prayer, even though we may not realize it at the time. Later, it may become apparent to you, that if you received what you had asked for, when you asked for it, that it may have created even more problems down the road for you.

I have always been really bad about not grasping opportunities that were not exactly what I wanted (asked for). So, sometimes I believe that we also miss the boat because of our own obtusiveness.

[David W. Shelton]

I'm forced to wonder if those unanswered prayers go where all those lost socks go when the dryer swallows them...

[RebeccaFog]

I have always been really bad about not grasping opportunities that were not exactly what I wanted (asked for). So, sometimes I believe that we also miss the boat because of our own obtusiveness.

I have missed a fleet.

[Sandi]

Of course they end up on the moon.

Mead and the Moon are intimately connected in an old Scandinavian legend. The story goes that the god Odin sent a younger god named Mani to drive a chariot with the Moon to light up the night sky. Into the chariot also went all the things that were wasted on Earth: misspent time, squandered wealth, broken vows, unanswered prayers, and abandoned friends.

At the same time that Mani was collecting his burden of wasted things in the chariot, a man on Earth named Vidfinner was sending his two children out into the cold night. Vidfinner had a secret well of mead -- a magic elixir that he had stolen from the gods -- that made him powerful. He could never get enough of his beloved mead, and boasted that it made him more powerful even than the gods.

This night he was craving the drink and sent his son Hyuki and daughter Bil up the mountain with a big bucket and orders to fill it full of mead and bring it back. The children were afraid to go out in the cold dark night but he ignored their fears and sent them anyway.

The two children made their laborious way up the mountain and filled the bucket. It was so heavy that they spilled some mead on the grass. The grass grew tall and strong, and the children began to suspect that the mead was magic, and had come from the gods. They decided to be very careful not to spill another drop of the precious drink, but also worried that their father had stolen it.

When Odin saw that the wisdom and kindness of these children was wasted on their father, he told Mani to scoop them off the mountain into his chariot along with their bucket of mead, so that they could live on the moon forever. The dark spots on the moon are said to be the children's shadows, and on the full moon people would call out to Bil, asking her to drop a little mead on their lips so that they could gain a little of the strength that only the magical mead of the moon could impart.

No of course I don't believe it, but this old story paints a romantic picture in my mind.

The nursery rhyme Jack and Jill is based on this hundreds of years old legend.

[Butterfly]

They go to a place called Fantasia.

[Gray Seraph]

It's not really important where unanswered prayers go, but rather why weren't they answered in the first place?

If every prayer were answered there wouldn't be any reason to exist.

If God won't answer your prayers, just make your own fate, that's why we have freewill.

It's better in some ways to get what you want by your own will though, because than you can actually appreciate it.
The same way rich people don't appreciate money if they always had it.

Sometimes it's better that prayers go unanswered though. I'd be dead by now if they were, because it was almost answered for me once, before I knew that wasn't what I really wanted.

~Gray Seraph

[Squirrel]

What are you praying for?

If you pray that we'll keep our troops in Iraq, your prayer will be answered.

If you pray for world peace, it will not.

God works in mysterious ways.

S