No Matter What Happens, It Means God Answered Your Prayer!

I was given an LDS book for Christmas a few years ago entitled “Why? Powerful Answers and Practical Reasons for Living LDS Standards”. On almost every page is something juicy for me to write about.

I randomly opened the book to page 133 and found myself in the chapter about prayer. On this page is a quote from Elder Gene R. Cook who said:

“I believe that in the whole history of the world God has never failed to answer a humble, sincere prayer – no matter who offered it, whether male or female, young or old, weak or strong, member or nonmember. That’s the way the Lord is. He is so kind. He is so anxious to respond. Of course, his answer might have been ‘No’. Or he may have said, ‘Yes, but not now’. Or he may have responded in a still, small voice that the person failed to hear. But answer he did.”

Amazing, isn’t it?

Think about it… You pray for something and you either get it or you don’t. If you get it, that means god said “YES!” If you didn’t get it, god either said “NO!” or you weren’t listening hard enough.

The funny thing is that if I prayed to a rock, I would get exactly the same results. If I got it, then the rock said “YES!” If I didn’t get it, then the rock said “NO!” Wow, that rock really loves me!

I could use Elder Cook’s example to prove that anything can answer my prayer.
Notice how Elder Cook also mentions how god is “so anxious to respond”. So does that mean that god already knows what you are going to ask for but withholds it until you come groveling to him? You know, that sounds more like a mean big brother than a loving father.

Ever since my eyes were opened about religion, I have had one major problem with prayer. What good does it do? Why do people think that just by asking god for something, they can alter his will? What good is an all-knowing god if all it takes is one simple, weak, naïve, human prayer to change his mind? That means god is a puppet and humans are really running the show. What’s the point of having a god then?

Here’s a scenario. What if someone’s mother was sick and god knew that her kids would pray for her to get better. He already knew that the answer would be “no” and that she would die. First of all, if god already knows what his answer will be, then why ask for it? Secondly, what if the kids didn’t pray for her to get better but she died anyway? Did god answer the prayer that they were going to say? Would god keep her alive forever until they ask for her to live and then take her? Either way, what’s the point of prayer?

If the world was to stop praying, would the earth stop spinning? Nope. Life would go on. Some sick people would get better and some would die. People would still have good days and bad days. Nothing would change. Some people would get great jobs and some people would lose great jobs.

Life just happens and it’s not the almighty up there pulling strings for you. It sucks, but get over it.