The Dangers of Prayers - Essay Example

The Dangers Of Prayer Are Expecting Nothing From It Or Expecting Too Much? Prayers are the obligatory service that we offer before our Lord and through this prayer we enable our inside to realize that God actually exists. Prayers differ among all the religions. Several types of rituals and ceremonies are specific with respect to the followers of a particular religion. This is how the holy and the sacred circle of faith and beliefs run in the world. Christian prayers like other religions are associated to the belief of heart and belief of faith. The Christians bow down before Jesus and pray before him. The Churches are meant to worship God. The common factor that is observed in all religions is the faith that the prayer, no matter what ever done; is automatically sent to the God. As described by (Eric Gondwe) that God exists in inner self and searches for the followers who service Him through both of their strength of mind and genuineness John (4:23-24). The belief that God exists within an individual, is being shared by most of the religions of the world. But, with the passage of time, the beliefs and the faith are taking new shapes and new forms. The ever increasing population has its distinct views about adopting a particular religion. With the existence of peace and faith of religion, anger also exists in our world. And this gives rise to the aspect of terrorism. It feels that this terrorism adds dangers to our lives. And this is the fear which is increasing day by day. The aggressive nations and the suppressed generations exist who believe that their rights have been exploited sometime by some other people. And that fighting the other nations can give their lost rights back to them. Sometimes even this angry behavior is responsible for the weakening faiths of the people. A Christian prayer is meant for paying their praise to the God. These prayers might be categorized into three forms. Christians pray either directly before God, through the Church or through Saints. But the ultimate locus of a prayer is God. Some Christians believe that God exists in a spiritual form and that they can talk and communicate with Him by just keeping the God alive in their hearts. Some need a valid proof and in order to possess a rational reason for the existence of God, they go for several justifications and experimentations. Some just carry their beliefs upon God just the way their ancestors used to be. It really matters how a Christian approaches God and what style does he adopt for worshipping Him. It is also very important for a Christian to adopt a sincere style of worship because this style might affect his prayer as well as what he expects from it. The most important factor of a Christian prayer is the devotion in it. If the Christian has reached the depth of his prayer, this means that he is in a direct contact with God. This devotion and depth can be produced in a Christian prayer when the prayer is offered at a Church. By offering prayer in a church, a Christian feels himself being passionate and in complete rhythm of the prayer. Contrary to a Church, if worship is being offered at an office or somewhere else, the kind of depth and passion cannot be easily produced in the prayer. The misconceptions about Christianity, the fallacy about Mary and delusion about the origin of Jesus are the dangers to that can affect Christianity. These aberrations have been formed in order to affect the Christian beliefs. These dangers can easily lead a Christian’s mind towards doubts and misconceptions. The dangers of prayers are expecting too much from it. This can be judged very easily because these dangers have a potential to destroy or harm a Christian belief. A Christian while attending a prayer needs to be praying with devotion and sincerity so that all the dangers and aberrations might stay away from him. When a Christian believes that his worship before God is essential for his life, he just goes for the pray and leaves the rest upon God. But contrary to this if a Christian bows down before his Lord for the attainment of a particular desire, he expects that God should be essentially fulfilling his wish. The latter kind of a prayer does not include any depth and feeling in it. This kind of a purposeful prayer is a big danger for the development of trust about Christianity in a Christian’s heart. In case of such a danger, when a Christian believes that his prayer has not been granted, he moves away a single step back from the circle of Christianity. While some people believe that if sometimes their wishes have been proved out to be unfruitful, they would have been delayed for a good reason as per God’s will. As stated by Philip Yancey that it appeared that prayer was not a simple issue even for Jesus. This gave him the feeling that although the prayers seemed to be unheard but through this he was able to share a feeling that although a prayer seems to be unheard but they are sent to God. Christianity has been spread across the world by means of missionaries. Christian missionaries preach Christianity to all non- Christians. They try to provide solid reasons to the people about Christianity and make them follow their religion as well. Christian Missionaries spread at various places and conduct speeches and debates at huge areas to increase their circle of Christianity. The missionaries develop a light of Christianity in the peoples’ hearts. They explain the ideology of Christianity before the people and by proving rational concepts of Christianity they turn many non-Christians to Christians. Some people abide by the lessons given by the Christian missionaries and are able to produce the depth required by a Christian prayer. But, if the missionary teaching remains unexplained, it might give birth to various doubts and misconceptions. These misconceptions play an important role in the deviation of a newly converted Christian mind from his religion. These doubts and misconceptions apparently do not appear much before an observer’s eye. But when flourished, these misconceptions are the biggest danger that can produce a harmful impact upon a Christian’s belief. The birth of a doubt in a Christian mind is a big danger for Christianity. These doubts can give birth to questions about God. If answers are found, Christianity does not feel being endangered in his heart. If the questions remain unanswered, Christianity’s life in a Christian’s heart might have to experience danger. This danger is also essential to be fought back by a Christian. The danger of prayer in such a case also expects a too much from it. People by birth are unaware of the path they should be following. Similarly, a Christian also takes God’s suggestions so that they might know what actually God’s will states. Through these suggestions, he is able to identify the correct path chosen for him by God. Philip Yancey declares this state of human beings as a boy who requests his parents to compute a query of mathematics and he himself plays video games. This is how we ask to God for the things we should be doing ourselves while we expect all of them to be done by God. The dangers and humiliations in the current scenario expect a lot from the believers of a certain religion. One has started to expect a lot from his religion and this is why he has to pray with the deepest of his feelings and raise towards the God. A Christian also possesses a set of expectations from Christianity. If these expectations experience any wavering, there appears a danger for Christianity. So, this becomes very important for a Christian to keep his expectations leveled in order to follow Christianity in a straight flow. If the expectations of a Christian are not leveled and the love of Christianity is not clear enough in his heart, his belief might get affected very easily. This is a kind of danger that does not appear much. But, inside a Christian’s heart a feeling of loss gets developed and it gets flourished when the expectations continuously experience a break down in them. The prayers of such a Christian also lack a depth in them and this is a danger of prayer that expects too much from it. The dangers of prayer expect too much from its Christian believers. The danger of losing Christianity expects a deep and a passionate prayer from a Christian. This danger only gets away if a Christian attempts to clarify all the possible doubts about Christianity from his heart. Apart from the dangers of prayer in heart, physical dangers in prayers also expect too much from it. If Christian on a voyage suffers from several problems such as no or less money, bad weather, no food, he would think that his voyage would have been much better if he had prayed to God. If a Christian who has prayed to God for the success of his voyage, faces the same problems during his voyage he would feel quite distressed by it. This is because the Christian who had offered a prayer actually prayed with depth and asked God for something. But the physical dangers made his belief to feel shiver. Such dangers of prayer also expect too much from it. But, if his faith in Christianity is strong enough he would be able to fight and struggle between all the possible dangers that might come in his way as he moves forward. So a Christian should be extra ordinarily clear about his conception and belief in God. Timothy Bradshaw explains in his book about the exploration of prayer that is offered to God. He also insists the Christian believers that they should explore the God to whom they pray. The residence of God in a Christian’s heart is extremely important. This is because if the existence of God gets affected somehow or the other, misconception in his religion can be easily produced. If this presence of God gets affected in a Christian’s heart, it becomes easier for others to let their prospects dwell in there. The non- believers with respect to Christianity tend to push their ideas of faith in a Christian’s mind so that their religion might reside in the heart of a Christian as well. This objective of a non-Christian can only be achieved in two conditions. In one condition, this is possible when the preacher of the other religion is extremely powerful. But in the other case, if a Christian leaves or changes his religion because of an influential source or an inspiring preacher, he would possibly have had a weak belief of Christianity in his heart. For this purpose it is essential for a Christian to learn and know about the basics of Christianity. A Christian might essentially learn the principles of Christianity and he should know the significance of his religion. If such an attitude becomes a part of a Christian’s faith and doctrine; he would surely fight courageously towards all the dangers that might affect Christianity somehow or the other. For the creation of a clear and a transparent image of Christianity in a Christian’s heart, it is essential to conduct his thorough communication with God. This communication can either take place in a secret corner or can be conducted as a shared prayer in a church. What actually matters is a deep belief and the attitude of Christian when he bows down before God. The sincere and true respect for the Lord makes a Christian feel free and sure that no matter what the situation arises, he would never quit his belief and that he would be a Christian until his death. Conclusion: Faith and religion exist in ones heart. If a Christian is sure and confident about his belief in Christianity, he would never fear any dangers that might affect his religion. If a Christian doctrine is stable enough, no other source whether influential or powerful would be able to distract a Christian from Christianity. This is the reason that the dangers of prayer expect too much from the ones offering them. This is associated to the fact that how a Christian approaches to the prayers and how actually does he get connected to the God. The style and the approach a Christian adopts really matter when making connection to the God. So all the dangers can only be handled and tackled if the inside belief and the inside faith are completely doubt free and unwavering in nature. Reference Page: Eric Gondwe, Individual and corporate prayer Yancey, Philip. Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? Zondervan, 2006. Timothy Bradshaw; Praying as Believing the Lords Prayer and the Christian Doctrine of God Read More