If God can not change his mind why do people waste time with prayer???!!?

If there is a God, and he knows you will die of cancer at age 40, what good would it do to pray for him to change events and let you live? you can not have it both ways.

2012-09-19T15:45:35Z

not to live forever, just another day or year, it still doesn't change things. praying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but will not get you anywhere.

interested12082012-09-19T15:46:14Z

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But he did change his mind in the Bible several times...

IMHO

samir_sogay2012-09-20T07:32:36Z

According to Islam, prayers are capable of changing the fate written by God. Suppose it was written that you will die of cancer at 40 but it was also written that you will pray for your life and so if God wishes, He changed it to 60 years.

A Full Day's Supply of Vitamin C2012-09-19T22:50:42Z

We cannot have it both ways in your thinking, but that is because you want to establish a "all-or nothing" scenario in which it can only be one or the other. That is not how God works.

I'll provide an example. In the book of Genesis, there is an account in which, because of their incredible debauchery and destructive behavior, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are to be destroyed along with all of their inhabitants except Lot's family. God sends angels to warn Lot of the coming destruction and they tell Lot that he and his family must flee to nearby mountains.

Lot asks if instead of running to those faraway mountains, if instead he and his family can run to the nearby city of Zoar, and God acquiesces on that point and lets Lot run there instead.




God's unchangeable purpose in this account is that Sodom and Gomorrah, having ignored all warnings to stop their debauchery, must be destroyed, but that Lot must be saved by escaping the city before its destruction. What could be changed is the location of the escape, and Lot's request to God was granted in that he was now allowed to run to the city of Zoar instead of to the nearby mountains.

Prayer will not change God's purpose, but can be used to show faith in God, as well as to change some aspects of how the purpose is acheived. God will accomplish His purpose, but there can be more than one way to accomplish His purpose and God may change those details to accomodate us. Just as the purpose for Lot was only that he escape, but that it did not necessarily have to be to the mountains just so long as he was out of the city before its destruction, so some details can be changed for us as well.

Moi2012-09-19T22:45:55Z

scripture attests that God can and does change his mind

he sometimes repents as well

Jer 18:8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

Exd 32:14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

Gen 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Clouds withsome Lala2012-09-19T22:46:03Z

BECAUSE HE CAN"T CHANGE HIS MIND !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He has willed that some things will depend on your praying.

STUPID AS **** QUESTION OF THE DAY.

YOU MUST HAVE IT BOTH WAYS. Don't pray, you don't get. Pray, you get. ONE WILL.

Jesus taught about this a lot but so did the OT, which actually scorns your lack of sense. Read this.
And remember it is a prayer, those prayers you are criticizing.

Psalm 139
Of David. A psalm.

1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

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