A Coincidence Or A Prayer Answered?

A story today from Josue about a coincidence that happened in his life - or maybe you will interpret it as a prayer answered.

"I wanted to share a personal story of mine.

As a child I was taught Catholic and Jewish beliefs. I'd have to say that growing up within these religions left me a bit confused. It wasn't long before I decided that religion was just bull.

However, despite my beliefs at this point, my story takes me on a journey of faith - which I promised myself I would share if I had the opportunity.

When I was five years old my father left my mother and I.

I didn't realise or know, until many years later, as to why he left us. It was because he was sick and suffered from schizophrenia. To cut a long story short, he left as he considered this would be what was best for us. Unfortunately though, until I discovered this fact, during all my years while growing up I hated him.

Fourteen years later, after understanding why he left me, I prayed and asked God to forgive me for having hated my dad for all of those years.

The very next day, out of the blue, I had a phone call from my dad! He called, after all of those years, just to say hello.

When I think now about this coincidence, I fall back on the thought that God must have heard my prayer."

~ Josue

Other Random Posts:
English Neighbours Met In Texas By Complete Coincidence
The Meaning Of White Feathers As Messages From The Dead
The Coincidence Of The Date On An Old Photo Of Her Boyfriend

The Meaning Of Roses And White Feathers As A Symbol Of Prayers Being Answered

I have published many posts on this blog about white feathers. Mostly people finding the feathers have linked them with loved ones who have died. It's as if they are messages from the dead. I have experienced this myself but the following, from Nama Freesa, is a variation on the theme. This time the feathers (and also roses) are being seen as a symbol or message that prayers are being answered. See what you think.

"I experienced feathers all about me whenever I would pray. I prayed for my wayward son at one point in my life, for God to help lead him on a righteous path.

When my father passed away I had the company of the priest, who had officiated at my father's funeral services. At my table during the luncheon after the funeral service he asked me my name and I told him, Theresa. He told me his mother's name was Theresa and was named after St Theresa the Little Flower. I told him that was who I was named after as well.

He told me a story about his mother during the Vietnam War era and when his brother served during that time. His mother would pray for the safekeeping of her son, and she always knew her prayers were being answered by coming across a rose. I told him about finding feathers whenever I prayed for help or guidance, and he told me that the feather was the sign of the Holy Spirit. So, not only are your prayers being answered, but they are being answered by the highest of all powers.

That brought me such great comfort."

~ Nama Freesa

I'd never heard previously of roses being a symbol of prayers being answered, though I do remember hearing something of St Theresa of the Roses as mentioned above.

I found a little more on this on the Society of the Little Flower website. To quote:

"As she was dying in the convent infirmary, Therese could look out and see the rose bushes blossoming. She loved roses. She had thrown rose petals as a Child before the Blessed Sacrament. As she reflected on her quiet, hidden, and gentle life ending, she believed in faith that God had great things in store for her. She believed that her mission was only beginning as she entered the fullness of life with God. She explained: "After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses. I will spend my heaven doing good upon earth. I will raise up a mighty host of little saints. My mission is to make God loved..."

Shortly after her death, the rain of roses began. Sometimes roses literally appeared, and sometimes just the fragrance of them. Cures of painful and fatal diseases and many other miraculous experiences were attributed to her intercession. Sometimes people found inner peace and regained an inner warmth of spirit and confidence, by appealing to St. Therese."

On Wikipedia I found that: "St Theresa, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (January 2, 1873 - September 30, 1897), or Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, O.C.D., was a French Discalced Carmelite nun. She is popularly known as The Little Flower of Jesus or simply, The Little Flower."

So white feathers and roses may be signs that prayers are being answered. It would be interesting if anyone else has found this to be the case.

Other Posts:
The Flesh Eating Bug Overcome By Prayer
The Meaning Of White Feathers As Messages From The Dead
The Great Unknown Link Between God And Man

The Flesh Eating Bug Overcome By Prayer

The nurse told Lucy Dove that her 18 month old son, Frankie, was 'the sickest boy in the country'. The poor little lad was being ravaged by a flesh-eating bug.

In April Frankie had to go through a nine-and-a-half hour operation to remove skin and and tissue from his back and thigh, The doctors did not think he would survive the night and told his parents to hope for a miracle.

A second operation followed and Franke was put into a drug-induced coma for 12 days. More infected tissue was removed and then skin grafts to repair the damage caused by the necrotising fasciitis bug. Skin was taken from his legs and trunk and stretched across his back and damaged thigh.

Lucy and her partner Wayne Mould, from Sunderland, must have felt heartbroken, so much so they turned to prayer. Lucy  Explained: "We weren't religious, but we are now. When doctors haven't got any hope what are you left with? We started praying to save him and our prayers were answered."

Lucy also admitted that she had whispered to her little boy, "Frankie, if you want to go, you go."

But Frankie didn't want to go. He showed extraordinary resilience to battle back from the brink and is now home following six weeks of treatment. The consultant surgeon at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary has said that the boy's skin grafts are 'healing beautifully' but his skin is still swathed in bandages.

Though one must in no way underestimate the expertise of the surgeons and doctors, maybe it was prayer that helped tip the balance in a positive way.

Other Random Prayer Posts:
The Brothel Closed By Prayer
A Vicar's Prayers For Money Were Answered
How A Prayer Was Answered

A Vicar's Prayers For Money Were Answered

The Rev Dominic Furness of the All Saints church in Hampshire, England asked his congregation to pray for help over their church's money worries - and what a response he got.

As Rev Furness told the Daily Mail: "I have seen God provide before and put my faith in the fact that he would again, but sometimes he doesn't half show off."

God showing off - surely not, but it's easy to see how the vicar may have thought this when his prayers were answered with a £200,000 (nearly US$300,000) donation from an anonymous donor.

A note with this large sum simply said, "God prompted me to put my hand in my pocket."

There was also more good news. This donation coincided with another anonymous gift of £3000. No doubt there will be a third soon.

The vicar has obviously got the knack of how to pray off to a fine art! But as I wrote in a post about Guardian Angels, a few days ago, it's up to us to ask - if we are having any sort of problems. There's that old saying about If you don't ask you don't get and that's true, no matter at what level we are talking about: spiritual or more worldly.

The All Saints worshippers were delighted that prayers had been answered. As Rev Furness explained, "I shared the news with the church council before making an announcement at morning service. Some people were reduced to tears while others' reactions were like something out of a cartoon I could see their jaws hitting the floor."

The vicar comes across as a positive, good man and it's nice to see that he has a sense of humour. Religion doesn't have to be dull!

Similar Themed Posts:
Is This Why Prayers Are Never Answered
How A Prayer Was Answered
Gratitude The Sacred Secret And The Law Of Attraction

Is This Why Prayers Are Never Answered

Here's something I don't normally do - which is to publish something on this blog that I completely disagree with. But today I thought I would!

The article is by Al Stefanelli and is based on a theme from his book called Free Thoughts - A Collection Of Essays By An American Atheist.

The word 'athiest' in the title of his book immediately indicates that Mr Stefanelli would have little truck with many of the posts on 67 Not Out!

So blood pressure tablets at the ready here goes.

"The claim that God answers prayer is contrary to reality. Outside of the obvious, glaring reality that there is no God, coincidence plays a major role in the believer's lack of understanding about how the world works. Let’s take the scenario of someone locking themselves out of their apartment. They utter a prayer for help and a few minutes later the Superintendent shows up. Normally, this would be viewed as a coincidence. But according to the praying Christian, it was the hand of God that made the Super show up 'just at that moment' to unlock their door.

Consider, though, that in third-world countries there are faithful believers who are praying to God because they're starving to death or are succumbing to diseases that can be cured with modern medicine that isn't available to them for a variety of reasons, usually associated with money. Speaking of money, there are hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their jobs and are praying for God to give them another one, and to provide for their sustenance and health while they are unemployed.

It would seem that God is behaving like quite the jerk by ignoring all those sick, starving children and allowing entire families to be put out on the street, but chooses to send an apartment manager to unlock the door of an inconvenienced resident.

Ask a believer to explain how their God could provide a great parking spot at Wal-Mart; yet allow six million people die during the Holocaust. Ask a believer how their God could provide a sunny day for a $10,000 outdoor wedding; but ignore the prayers of the woman who is left to die after being raped and tortured. Ask a believer about their God ignoring the payers of a mother who is watching her kids die of starvation, but providing a … Well, you get the idea…

Depending on which variety of Christianity is in question, the reasons for a failure of God to grant a praying person's wishes will vary from accusations of improper praying, that someone involved had a doubt, that someone involved was not a 'True Christian', that it’s all Adam and Eve's fault or that the real culprit is that old Serpent, the Devil.

Almost every Christian will tell you, though, that we 'mere mortals' should never question the 'higher ways' of their God. What they will not tell you is that it takes twisted logic to explain how their God can answer the prayers of the person locked out of their house, but ignore the prayers of those who are victims of the death, destruction, starvation and deprivation that we see in our world every day.

What about when God grants the wishes of the praying person? Well, coincidences, even remarkable ones, are not unusual. They happen all the time. The dictionary defines the word coincidence as a sequence of events that, although accidental, seems to have been planned or arranged. 'Answered prayers' that do not involve the actions of other human beings are always coincidences, nothing more.

When a group of people prays about fixing up an old woman's dilapidated house, and then people show up with hammers, it's not an act of their God. It’s just a group of well-meaning people who made a choice to help out someone in need. Nothing wrong with that, except for the whole 'God led me to do it' part. Chances are pretty good that if the group were ardent atheists, they’d have done it anyhow.

As Steven Weinberg has so eloquently stated:
'With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion.'

Statistical analysis easily unmasks the illusion of prayer. If you pick out ten trivial things in your life to pray about on Monday, some of them will get answered and some would not. On Tuesday, if you don’t pray at all, you would see pretty much the same ratio of answered prayers. This is because the act of praying does not change the outcome. A Christian can go for a month without uttering one, single prayer and they will find that nothing will change because prayer is an irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences an outcome.

Simply put, when a Christian says, 'God answered my prayers', what it really means is that either a coincidence happened or some well-meaning believers got wind of her petitions. If you compare reality with what the Bible says about the efficacy of prayer, it becomes obvious that Christians are worshipping a cosmic consummate liar. There is no God in heaven looking down onto earth and answering prayers. Both common sense and statistics plainly reveal this. The miraculous intervention of the divine does not exist. You might as well be talking to your favourite stuffed animal. The choice is yours. Perhaps you should flip a coin."

There we go! I think it's sometimes good to look at opposing views. At the very least they make us think and question, and then go on to establish our very own set of beliefs,

Other 67 Not Out Posts:
The Secret Of The 12 Days Of Christmas
How A Prayer Was Answered
The Suffering Created By Eve And Pandora