Alan & Brenda Leonard

> Ned announces:
>
> Prayer is not begging. Prayer is doing what's good and right.
>
> If God is "omniscient" as we are told, then do we really need to tell God
> our needs, or ask for favors?

Well, Ned,

Maybe you don't. Maybe prayer for you is living; as you suggest above, it's
doing what's good and right. I don't think there's anything wrong with
doing what's good and right, mind you! But yes, I need to pray.

However, I don't think that prayer is about begging God for favors, nor do I
think that it's telling God what God already knows. Prayer is about ME. If
I never stop to think, to be quiet, to sit and "be" in the presence of God,
which to me is praying, I am not right with myself or God. As my husband
says, I become a human doing instead of a human being.

If that sounds a lot like meditation, you're right. But there's another
element of it for me, and that's talking to God. Yea, I believe that God
does already know. (But sometimes my husband does, too, and I talk to him!)
If I believe that God is great and a wonderful power in my life, then surely
in my prayers it makes sense to stop and say thank you. (If I believe that
your posts are useful, I say thank you to you, too, right? Why not God?!)
Why ask God for something? Because it surely doesn't hurt to ask. I find
peace in asking God to be with someone in need, in telling God my fears and
asking for his peace, and things like that. Does God give me everything I
ask? Of course not. I don't give my son everything he asks for, either.
Somethings aren't the right thing for us, whether or not we can see that at
the time. But prayer is important to me, and to many other folks as well.

peace,
brenda