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Promptings That Went Sour / Literal Beilief


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ETA: Relating to my previous post, I think I know now why God answers prayers to find keys, rings etc. they were prayers focused on a positive outcome and were easier fixes, maybe the more difficult answers take time.

Either that Or we don't like the answer and resist recognition of it. Or maybe he is giving us a chance to grow a bit.

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ETA: Relating to my previous post, I think I know now why God answers prayers to find keys, rings etc. they were prayers focused on a positive outcome and were easier fixes, maybe the more difficult answers take time.

That's interesting. Perhaps it is something God gives as an encouragement, too.

I wondered about this about three years ago when my wife mislaid her keys and for a few days was using my copy of the car key to drive with. She prayed about her keys, and the day afterwards she found the keys on the bed. She had made the bed that morning and upon returning home from her work day there they were, sitting on the bedspread, right in the middle. We lock our bedroom during the day, and nobody else has a copy of the bedroom key. How did the keys get there? I don't know. But there they were.

Edited by Stargazer
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Christ was perfect, sinless, our Exemplar, our Intercessor with the Father, and so on. There was no reason for His Father to forsake him. And yet we ought not forget that even He, on the cross, said, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, KJV). Even if we don't understand the reasons why God seems to have forsaken us, there was absolutely no reason for the Father to forsake Christ. And yet it happened ... if for no other reason than so Christ could proclaim that He "trod[ ] the winepress alone" (Doctrine & Covenants 76:107).

Just a litte more food for thought, for what it's worth.

P.S.: Cal knoweth stuff! ;)

Edited by Kenngo1969
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That's interesting. Perhaps it is something God gives as an encouragement, too.

I wondered about this about three years ago when my wife mislaid her keys and for a few days was using my copy of the car key to drive with. She prayed about her keys, and the day afterwards she found the keys on the bed. She had made the bed that morning and upon returning home from her work day there they were, sitting on the bedspread, right in the middle. We lock our bedroom during the day, and nobody else has a copy of the bedroom key. How did the keys get there? I don't know. But there they were.

I too had an answer to a prayer, I thought, when I lost my wedding ring early in my marriage and then found it. But I like your story better!
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I wanted to thank you all for your posts. I do not know if I will be ok for sure, but I am slightly more motivated to try maybe once more. It's been a mix of you people,remembering what I want (and the reality of what I do NOT want...or at least the cheap substitute of what I think I have to settle for in my life), and of course perhaps the Holy Spirit too right?

Thanks all.

Your friendly neighborhood Jimguy

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Well, I haven't left yet. And I'm here to vent and get suggestions. I haven't become the bad guy yet.

Hehe, I don't think your the bad guy. In any case, we all need to vent sometimes. Then we keep going =D.

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I hope things work out for you jim.

Double this (I am actually asleep right now....or as close to it as I get without passing out....so I apologize for the less than profound comment, but the feeling is strongly there even if the words aren't.
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I hope things work out for you jim.

Double this (I am actually asleep right now....or as close to it as I get without passing out....so I apologize for the less than profound comment, but the feeling is strongly there even if the words aren't.

Me too, Jimguy... except for Cal's sleep thing...

GG

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The most difficult thing to do here on earth is to discern revelation from God from our own thoughts. This is true even for prophets, apostles, and other people who have a lot of experience with it. Past success and experience doesn't guarantee present results (or that there won't be human error in discerning), and each time a man is called upon to give a priesthood blessing, it is a terrifying and awesome experience because it's "curtains up" and revelation isn't "on demand." Sometimes God does not give any, even when we are worthy, and even when we need it badly and legitimately. Sometimes we are called upon to prophesy or heal and get absolutely no inspiration --- yet, we need to give the blessing just the same. This state of things is actually very valuable, and allows us to grow in ways that automatic, regular "success" doesn't.

Six months of my mission were in the former East Germany (we were the first companionship to have a phone in the apartment), and it was very hard initially to overcome the religious toll of multiple generations of Communism. Almost all people shut us down with "if there really is a God, then why does XYZ happen, or why is there (insert awful atrocity)?" We ended up translating a quote from President Kimball and typing it onto a "Zettel" to give to people and initiate discussion, and this went far towards overcoming this. Off the top of my head, it ran

"Should all prayers be immediately answered according to our selfish desires and our limited understanding, then there would be no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or even death, and if these were not, there would also be no joy, success, resurrection, nor eternal life and godhood . . . Being human, we would expel from our lives physical pain and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we were to close the doors upon sorrow and distress, we might be excluding our greatest friends and benefactors. Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering, and self-mastery. The sufferings of our Savior were part of his education."

The fact is that if prayers were instantly answered how and when we want them to be, there would be no faith, and we would have no need for God. And, we "see through a glass darkly" in this life, and correctly discerning answers is not a sure thing, no matter how much experience and "success" someone has had. And that is very valuable.

It is important to realize that everybody feels the Spirit in different ways, and how one person does may be completely foreign or different to someone else. It takes practice, patience, and experience to know how you do, and even then, it is not an automatic given that can be relied on all the time.

My "yes" answers to prayers have not been "a good feeling" as much as a strong feeling that something specific needed to be done and an overpowering feeling of peace that came when I visualized doing what the strong feeling prompted. There have been times in my life when God has specifically given me no counsel, even though I really needed it, and I have grown from the experience, even though it wasn't any fun going through it.

It's a fine line between expecting too much from prayer and expecting too little, and its a line everybody has to walk, even if they've had a lot of experience and past "success" (I think the thought behind the title quote to a paper I wrote on this applies to prayer as well:

"It is well nigh as dangerous to claim too much for the inspiration of God in the affairs of men as it is to claim too little. By the first men are led into superstition, and into blasphemously accrediting their own imperfect actions, their blunders, and possibly even their sins to God; and by the second they are apt to altogether eliminate the influence of God from human affairs. I pause in doubt as to which extreme would be the worse.”

From the same paper, Brigham Young gave comforting counsel for me and everyone else who has ever not received needed revlelation, even when worthy:

"If I do not know the will of my Father, and what He requires of me in a certain transaction, if I ask Him to give me wisdom concerning any requirement in life, or in regard to my own course, or that of my friends, my family, my children, or those that I preside over, and get no answer from Him, and then do the very best that my judgment will teach me, He is bound to own and honor that transaction, and He will do so to all intents and purposes."

http://www.fairlds.org/authors/jones-mckay/well-nigh-as-dangerous

I don't know if you played baseball when you were younger, but being in a batting slump is frustrating ---- and made worse by pressing to lay good wood on the ball. Slumps need to run their course, and it takes patience and continuance of effort while relaxing and not getting frustrated before things get better. I find that spiritual slumps are the same way.

Hang in there and keep swinging the bat! :)

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