Friday, November 16, 2007
Praying for others as opposed to praying for yourself
Is it just me? I have always found it very difficult to pray for my own needs and have always found it much easier to pray for others. I wonder why this is so. Is it a fear of maybe not trusting in the Lord? Or being afraid of being "disappointed" or subconscious fear that maybe my little problems comparatively speaking are too trival to bother the Almighty with? I don't pray for things like "give me the winning lottery numbers" - the one thing I can seem to pray for for myself is for God to give me strength to get through whatever it is I need to get through, and that seems to usually be given in the end, but I almost fear to pray for anything else. Do other people feel this way? Is it common or uncommon?
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10 comments:
You're much more humble than me! My list starts..hey God i'd like this & that oh & ??? then for everyone else..you have it right!
The previous attempt just had too may typos...
I let Mom (the BVM one) keep track of such things for me. I know she'll make sure the child who needs whatever most will get it. I also go to her when I think I REALLY need something (like that new car LOL) as I figure "What Good Jewish Boy says no to His Mother?"
It is IMHO a form of false modesty or an attempt at humility. When you study the great saints (which I know you have done), look how often they pray for themselves. They are always asking.
We should always pray for ourselves. We need to ask for the graces to do His will. God wants to give us His grace, but we have to ask for it.
I suffered for many years with a disease and experienced a healing. It took 35 years for me to finally ask to be healed. Duh! And, I didn't even ask for a complete healing. I simply said, "Now God - if you expect me to keep doing all these things you want me to do, you're going to have to help me out a bit." Bingo - no more pain.
Karen, I'm with you... I prefer to pray for other people. I try to take a "thy-will-be-done" attitude (not very successfully) in prayers for myself. However, I figure that if lots of other people are praying on my behalf, it will have more of an effect... so I ask all my friends for their prayers (and all the friends I've acquired by praying for the souls in Purgatory, and my patron saints too)
It's not just you. I have the same trouble and I also have a big problem asking others to pray for me. It is much easier to pray for others and to ask for prayers for others.
karen:
I'm with you. Sometimes there are so many people to pray for--you never get around to pray for yourself! And it's hard--if makes you feel like your being selfish or something. You kinda think you don't deserve to ask God.
I pray for the strength and talents I need to get what I want!
I remember when I became a Christian I prayed and prayed to be closer to our Lord.
He answered my prayers but not in the way I expected. Did I become a Missionary to far of lands? No! Did I climb huge mountains? No! Did I become a Nun? No!
I became very ill with M.E. I then spent the first year of the illness raging at God, until I finally realised. He had simply answered my prayer. The only way to Christ is through the Cross.
But, Dear Lord, dont tell me twice;) *wink* lol.
Peace to you:)
Marie
Grateful thanks for praying for my friend on my blog. She is so much better!
Thank you,
AR xxx
Thank you for all your comments. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with this "issue" if you want to call it that.
I think Adrienne said something particularly apt in that we should remember that in reading the lives of the saints how often they prayed for themselves.
In my case I don't think it's a false sense of humility, as I expect I will be doin' time in purgatory the most for that particular offense. But perhaps it is in maybe being somewhat afraid of the answer God gives you. We may fear a "no" for what we think we want, but should trust Him that in the end his "no" is a "yes" to something that is better for us in the long run. It's like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle when we don't know what the final picture is like, but He does!
Karen
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