I believe prayer needs to be a sincere interchange with God. That we stop our busy schedules to pray one day because everyone else is doing it does not feel sincere to me. BUT, a day of national prayer certainly can't hurt.
I most definitely believe in the power of prayer. And the more united in sincere prayer, the better the outcome. Your question Lady_E, poses another dimension to my thinking in this regard.
And that is, depending on what God is doing on this planet, some things will require more than praying, repentance will have to walk in harmony with our prayer.
I've never understood why God would need people to talk him into doing something positive. Since He did little to prevent the natural disaster in the first place, I see no reason to think that praying will make him do something to help the victims. Of course, praying can make people feel that they are doing something and get them to focus on something other than themselves.So in that sense, it can be a good thing.
Thanks for all who have responded - some very good points raised. There are lots of negative votes, but I haven't voted answers down - (I don't) I appreciate your answers. I guess some one will mark this one down too.Lol.
God did not will the events you mentioned terced ojos, god allowed them to happen because mankind has not yet come to the end of themselves. Like you and others they do not agree with a Creator God and so god leaves them alone, for the most part, but repent and be saved and he will never leave you alone. The christians who die in these occurances are finished their earthly trial and will obtain an inheritance with God whom they worshiped.
Never worry or be sad about a christian dying, for us it is soon to be with the Lord Jesus.(onto the question).....NO......nothing will deter the wrath of God. S tribulation period is set in stone. To pray to deter the natural disasters is to pray a miss, to pray that people be saved during those disasters is to pray a hit.
For in every disaster, life of struggle, bad scenario there is always a number of unsaved turning to the God of heaven and earth and of the bible. Don't forget the biggest earthquake of all time is to happen at the Lords returning.. where geography changes so much that mt Everest is no longer the highest mountain but Zion becomes the highest mountain. We cannot pray this away.
Come Lord jesus.
If you live long enough something bad is going to happen to you.LOL...According to some Christians; God willed hurricane Katrina, the bombing of the twin towers and any and all natural disasters that befall human beings. Did I forget to mention Haiti? Well here goes....Haiti.
:)Thing is if God is pissed off and killing people with natural disasters; doesn't that mean the individual persons...i.e...Christians who love and believe in God are perishing with the so-called sinners? I don't know but if these disasters are Gods handywork I've gotta say for a supreme being he sure works sloppy.
I believe anything is possible when people come together for a good cause. I believe in the power of prayer and use it in my life as it helps to keep me grounded. I agree the disasters are piling up and it seems, comming closer together recently.
I don't have the power to say united prayers would change things. Only God knows that. But I will say if everyone came together in honest and humble prayer, I think God would be listening, and that, just might be enough to change the course of these events.
However, keeping in mind the bible speaks of the Judgement Day, Armageddon, I sometimes wonder if these events are a sign?
There's been a lot of research into the power of prayer. Essentially, the findings are that prayer does nothing at all and will not influence the results of any event outside your own control. For example, where groups of people prayed for the recovery of random sick people, there was no difference between those prayed for and those in the control group who were not prayed for.In fact, where the sick person knew that someone was praying for them, they got better more slowly than if nobody was praying.
Save your prayers. Get up off your knees and get out into the world and DO something to fix problems.
These happenings in the world are just "beginning of sorrows" as we are entering the "last days" spoken of in the Bible and in many other sacred books. We can only expect it to get worse, but for the believers there is the hope that the worse it gets, the sooner Jesus is going to come back and bring s Kingdom of Love and Peace for all. Earnestly praying has been known to change the mind of God, and it certainly would not hurt to unite in prayer worldwide.
But it does not seem like the G20 or the Bilderberg meeting is about praying for a positive difference.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.