joyful2beeblogs

Sometimes it seems like our world is falling apart with floods, hurricanes, fires, decreasing temperatures, rising coastal waters, melting glaciers, species of creatures being declared extinct. And now a country near Russia is being invaded and people are being killed left and right, plus exploding homes and buildings with missiles and bombs in major cities.

All of the news has set me thinking about God, mankind, and decisions, war, suffering, and more people who are suffering. The world can be a scary place.

As a child and as an adult, I heard that prayer with faith, “the size of a mustard seed,” could move mountains. So I started praying at a very early age. As I grew older, I learned that sometimes our prayer may conflict with what God has planned. So I then began to add “If it be Your will,” when I prayed, or later, “If it is for the greater good.”

These “add ons” seem to “cover the bases” of asking God for help or protection to prevent a mess up of “the grand plan” of my life or of others’ lives. I remember hearing of a mother’s prayers for her son, who was severely injured in a terrible car accident. The young man lived another twenty years in a coma or vegetative state. But he was alive. Should his mother have prayed differently? What mother wouldn’t pray for their child to live?

This made praying even more scary. Was God like the genie in Aladdin: You have to ask specifically and carefully for what you want? Even then prayers are not always answered, or maybe they are not answered in the way and in the time frame we want.

I have been a Christian of faith all of my life. I do believe there must be a plan and that even though horrible things can happen, generally speaking, things usually come to a close or resolution, or healing.

Then, I heard that God is in charge. Although I believe this, I also believe in “free will.” This means that we are not puppets for God to manipulate, which He “would not want to do.” We are his children.

If we were God’s puppets, we would be automatons, doing whatever he manipulated us to do. There would be no need for love, forgiveness, pain, feelings, hate, growth, or decisions. The creator would be pulling all the strings of our lives. Thankfully, God does not work like that.

So why do we pray? In my experience and opinion, prayer is a way of communicating with the Creator what we feel, think or have needs. Since we are not puppets of God, he can’t make us do what we don’t want to do. But when we ask for help or guidance, Spirit can set certain things, people, ideas, events, clues, and facts in our paths to hopefully inspire better choices in our decisions. But we have the ultimate decision of how we will live; what actions we will take; how we will treat other people; and how we will live with our decisions.

If we ask God for help in a dangerous situation, I have heard of other people’s experiences and had some miraculous interventions myself. I was taught a long time ago, that sometimes, the events we consider miraculous are not always miraculous in themselves but more miraculous due to the timing of their occurrences.

I am thankful every day for my life, my family, loved ones, and God.