It was a miracle!

[thinkerbell]

I haven't read all of the posts--just the first 5 pages or so. Anyway, I believe God answers large and small prayers. I also believe, like Aunt Polly has said that prayer isn't always answered in the way we want it to be answered. For instance, when we moved three years ago, we prayed that my husband would find a great job with good pay. He found a good job but the pay wasn't the greatest. Well, we have always wanted him to be in the school system with me, but without going back to get a teaching degree(which he didn't want anyway), we just couldn't afford it. Nothing paid well enough. Well after living off of his lower pay for a year and a half, we realized that we could do it, so now we are both working in the same school district with summers off together. Our prayer was answered but not in the way we thought it would be. We really enjoy our time together. God does answer prayer!!!!

 

[PrincessTiff]

No, More like "Well, Jessica, my plans for you include bringing you Home today. Come here and help me help Polly find her papers."

"....and make you suffer while doing so"?

 

[PrincessTiff]

Yes. But in order for you to come Home to help Polly find her papers, you must be ripped from your home, raped over and over again and buried alive

I don't even have words for how some people can justiy this as God's Will. His Plan. It is almost brainwashing

I agree. How can one even find justification in that?

Wow! I was shocked to find this on page one again today. It seems to have turned into a free for all with people of faith having to justify their faith and non believers slinging reason after reason for why they're stupid for "believing".

But it's ok for believers to tell us what horrible people we are because we don't believe in a god?

 

[auntpolly]

I think we are trying to answer questions that may not be meant to be answered - by us.

I try to see a bigger picture. Someone earlier in this thread said something like "Your papers weren't important enough for God to be fiddling around with. The fact that you found them means nothing."

First of all, the papers were *really* important, but that wasn't the point. The papers are not the point.

I didn't say, "God, please help us find the papers", I said, "God, please help us." People were running around, frantic, a couple on the verge of tears. It was chaos, and we needed help. Of course I'm going to ask God for help. I believe he wants us to.

I stopped making my prayers "santa claus" lists a long time ago. I ask for help, for guidance, for comfort. I ask to be shown what to do.

It was just extra cool that we found those papers!!!!

 

[Buckalew11]

I didn't say, "God, please help us find the papers", I said, "God, please help us." People were running around, frantic, a couple on the verge of tears. It was chaos, and we needed help. Of course I'm going to ask God for help. I believe he wants us to.

The Bible says that the Lord says "Cast all your cares upon me because I care for you."

Instead of panicking about those papers you turned to God who already knew your trouble and was glad to hear from you because that what God wants--a relationship with each one of us who He created.

I'm glad you found those important papers and glad you felt the presence of God in the process.

 

[agnes!]

We are imperfect and finite, any understanding we have of God will be flawed at best.

agnes!

 

[Saphire]

Our prayer was answered but not in the way we thought it would be.

Great testimony, thinkerbell. I am in a Bible Study right now studying the Lord's prayer, and this poem was passed around. I really like it, and it echo's what some are saying on this thread.

Asking God

I asked God for strength that I might achieve.
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked God for health that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy.
I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise for men.
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for--
but everything that I hoped for. . .

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men most richly blessed.

--Author Unknown

 

[Cool-Beans]

I think we are trying to answer questions that may not be meant to be answered - by us.

I try to see a bigger picture. Someone earlier in this thread said something like "Your papers weren't important enough for God to be fiddling around with. The fact that you found them means nothing."

First of all, the papers were *really* important, but that wasn't the point. The papers are not the point.

I didn't say, "God, please help us find the papers", I said, "God, please help us." People were running around, frantic, a couple on the verge of tears. It was chaos, and we needed help. Of course I'm going to ask God for help. I believe he wants us to.

I stopped making my prayers "santa claus" lists a long time ago. I ask for help, for guidance, for comfort. I ask to be shown what to do.

It was just extra cool that we found those papers!!!!

Your paperwork may have been important, but certainly not as important as saving a girl who was raped and buried alive.

If God could intervene and decided to do so for your paperwork, but not for that girl, I'd think he was wicked. I don't believe in a God that helps out with finding papers but not suffering children.

I don't think he helped you find those papers. I think you are falsely (but not dishonestly) attributing it to God. What I mean is that I believe that you believe God performed a miracle for you, but I sincerely doubt that that is the case.

 

[cybrkitn]

Nice post, OP.

I do believe God answers prayers. Not the way we may want or expect, but he answers prayers.

My biggest prayer story happened about five years ago. DH had had a vasectomy 2 years previous in 2000, and I had regretted it and prayed that God would allow me to have another baby (with my DH ). I found out that I was, indeed, expecting in April of 2002. We were both overjoyed.

In July we discovered that we were having another little girl. She was "waving" at us in the ultrasound. Then on August 14th, at a routine 20 week checkup, we discovered that our little prayed for baby had died. I had labor induced and she was delivered on August 16, 2002.

I cannot begin even to describe the anguish of losing her. It literally was, and still is, a physical pain. But, my DH and I also had to deal with the very real mental/emotional pain of feeling,at first, that God had betrayed us. After some time and soul searching, we accepted that even though we lost her, her short time with us, both before and after she was born, had touched our lives. Now, I'm not saying that we were blessed to have lost her, but we were blessed in different ways for having had her, even as briefly as we did.

So God did answer my prayer in that He allowed me to have another baby, but He didn't allow me to keep her. Now, I know critics will say that sounds like a cruel joke on the part of God. I don't see it that way. I see it as God answering my prayer as He saw He needed to rather than the way I wanted him to.

Naturally, I would have preferred that God let me keep her here for awhile. But, that was not in His plans. I believe that He did that for both reasons that I believe and ones that I don't yet even know.

Seven months after I lost Gabrielle, I became pregnant with Olivia, and despite a few scares, she was born healthy on Nov 25, 2003. So ultimately, in His own time, He did answer my prayer the way I had hoped.

Sorry so long and I obviously know that it won't be considered a miracle, an answered prayer, or anything related to God by some.

If you read this far, I congratulate you on your persistence!!

I'm so sorry for your loss but am glad you have looked at it differently than most would have. God has a plan.

My mom went through 2 miscarriages before she was able to carry me.
She didn't know why she had to lose both those babies at first (found out later that her uterus couldn't hold a baby correctly). Later she told me if those had survived she would not have had anymore. Didn't mean that she loved me or my brother any less. She still had two kids and that's where she stopped and she still loves us just the same.

My DH wasn't planned. His mother already had two kids in the 1950's and wasn't planning on having anymore. Especially in her 40's. She did get pregnant and her doctor wanted her to "get rid" of the baby b/c it was too high risk (back then having a baby in your 40's was considered high risk). She wouldn't and gave birth to him 1 year and a 1/2 before I was born.

This is how I see it. God had a plan for my DH and I to be together. My mom had those miscarriages b/c God needed me to be here for my DH. Why did my mom have to go through the miscarriages? I don't know. Only God knows. But I do know that if I wasn't here, neither would my DS4 or his decendants when he grows up.

 

[JoeEpcotRocks]

Great testimony, thinkerbell. I am in a Bible Study right now studying the Lord's prayer, and this poem was passed around. I really like it, and it echo's what some are saying on this thread.

Asking God

I asked God for strength that I might achieve.
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked God for health that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy.
I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise for men.
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for--
but everything that I hoped for. . .

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men most richly blessed.

--Author Unknown

God does not give sickness or poverty. Every good and perfect gift is from above in which there is no variation or shifting shadow.

 

[Fitswimmer]

But it's ok for believers to tell us what horrible people we are because we don't believe in a god?

Absolutely not. See my earlier post. I don't agree with either athiests telling believers they are stupid or believers telling athiests that they are stupid. BOTH are rude and insulting.

 

[Saphire]

God does not give sickness or poverty. Every good and perfect gift is from above in which there is no variation or shifting shadow.

Perhaps you are hung up on the word 'give'. There is a difference between God "giving" poverty and God answering your prayer for riches. I would point to the scripture where Paul describes praying to be relieved of a physical problem. God didn't inflict it on Paul, per se, but He also didn't relieve Paul of the affliction. He told Paul that His Grace would be sufficient for him. There is a difference between God "giving" poverty and God NOT answering your prayer for riches.

James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

If God doesn't "give" trials, He also doesn't always take them away, and we are to "consider it pure joy"

 

[JoeEpcotRocks]

Perhaps you are hung up on the word 'give'. There is a difference between God "giving" poverty and God answering your prayer for riches. I would point to the scripture where Paul describes praying to be relieved of a physical problem. God didn't inflict it on Paul, per se, but He also didn't relieve Paul of the affliction. He told Paul that His Grace would be sufficient for him. There is a difference between God "giving" poverty and God NOT answering your prayer for riches.

James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

If God doesn't "give" trials, He also doesn't always take them away, and we are to "consider it pure joy"

Paul's affliction was not physical; his thorn was his persecution for preaching the Gospel.

True, God does not give us trials, nor tribulation.

God wants us blessed because he loves us and so we can be a blessing to others.

 

[PrincessTiff]

Absolutely not. See my earlier post. I don't agree with either athiests telling believers they are stupid or believers telling athiests that they are stupid. BOTH are rude and insulting.

I wish all believers had the same attitude as you.

 

[orljustin]

But I do know that if I wasn't here, neither would my DS4 or his decendants when he grows up.

Unfortunately, we are missing those descendents from the children that we miscarried. And if they were carried to term and born and met a husband and had children, they would be in the same place you are now, for no better reason that it worked out that way, and not another.

 

[auntpolly]

I've never been big on proselytizing and even though my wish is that everone could experience God's love, I'm not into trying to convince people to do it my way. I told my story because I wanted to share it with people who would appreciate it.

But I was just thinking, when people try to convince you that there is no God, or that you are wrong about how you see God, or that your faith is in error some way, isn't that just as bad as the person who proselytizes? You are convinced your way is the way just like any militant Christian?

Aren't you doing what you say you hate about Christians - pushing their beliefs on them? How is it any different?

Really, you can't have it both ways. I think you have to accept when Christians want to say what they think, or stop trying to convince Christians that they are wrong. How can you have it both ways.

I know that some Christians think they can have it both ways - but those are overbearing ones, so unless you want to fall in the same category, I think you should think about it. Just think about it.

 

[cybrkitn]

Unfortunately, we are missing those descendents from the children that we miscarried. And if they were carried to term and born and met a husband and had children, they would be in the same place you are now, for no better reason that it worked out that way, and not another.

OrlJ, do you ever have anything positive to say rather than always the negative? Try and look on the brighter side of things instead of always the bleeker things. Cheer up and let some into your life .

 

[WonderfulDreamer2]

I've never been big on proselytizing and even though my wish is that everone could experience God's love, I'm not into trying to convince people to do it my way. I told my story because I wanted to share it with people who would appreciate it.

But I was just thinking, when people try to convince you that there is no God, or that you are wrong about how you see God, or that your faith is in error some way, isn't that just as bad as the person who proselytizes? You are convinced your way is the way just like any militant Christian?

Aren't you doing what you say you hate about Christians - pushing their beliefs on them? How is it any different?

Really, you can't have it both ways. I think you have to accept when Christians want to say what they think, or stop trying to convince Christians that they are wrong. How can you have it both ways.

I know that some Christians think they can have it both ways - but those are overbearing ones, so unless you want to fall in the same category, I think you should think about it. Just think about it.

 

[orljustin]

OrlJ, do you ever have anything positive to say rather than always the negative? Try and look on the brighter side of things instead of always the bleeker things. Cheer up and let some into your life .

Why is that negative? I'm just pointing out that if something happened slightly differently, then things would be different, and there's no magical cause that made it work out one way or another. That isn't bleak (!) at all - it's just an observation.

 

[cybrkitn]

Why is that negative? I'm just pointing out that if something happened slightly differently, then things would be different, and there's no magical cause that made it work out one way or another. That isn't bleak (!) at all - it's just an observation.

Sure it can be an observation . But I have noticed in other threads that you always seem to want to put a damper on a situation. If someone is happy about something (for ex. the OP in this thread), you always seem to counter it in a negative way. It kind of "deflates" the joy someone is feeling.

But, yes, things would have been different if my mother didn't have the miscarriages. But I see that as something that wasn't meant to be and not in God's plans. You may see it differently. However, I am here and my parents have their first grandchild (DS4) who they love to pieces.