Praying for healing - your will be done

[nobspeople]

Your loved one is sick and dying. You pray for healing, ending the prayer with 'your will be done'.
Some would say praying for healing and then ending with 'your will be done' is hedging your bets - covering all the bases as it were. And they are likely right, based on that prayer alone.

For those who have done this, do you really want your loved one to be healed, or do you want God's will to be done?
Is the prayer for your benefit only and not the loved one, knowing God's will will be done anyway?
Or can prayer change God's will (God: Well, I was going to end Mable's life, but Gary and the family prayed so much I guess I'll let her live a bit longer)?

[1213]

Your loved one is sick and dying. You pray for healing, ending the prayer with 'your will be done'.
...
For those who have done this, do you really want your loved one to be healed, or do you want God's will to be done?
...

That is interesting, if you pray so, it can lead to death of the person, because then the person can go to heaven and be healed.

I want that things go as God sees is the best, because I think He knows better than I what is good for someone. But, I could still pray and hope one is healed.

[nobspeople]

Your loved one is sick and dying. You pray for healing, ending the prayer with 'your will be done'.
...
For those who have done this, do you really want your loved one to be healed, or do you want God's will to be done?
...

That is interesting, if you pray so, it can lead to death of the person, because then the person can go to heaven and be healed.

I want that things go as God sees is the best, because I think He knows better than I what is good for someone. But, I could still pray and hope one is healed.

You say "He knows better than I what is good for someone" then go ahead and say "if you pray so, it can lead to death of the person, because then the person can go to heaven and be healed...But, I could still pray and hope one is healed."
By your own admission you don't know if that person will go to heaven and be healed, so your prayer is pointless to everyone other than yourself.

[1213]

...
By your own admission you don't know if that person will go to heaven and be healed, so your prayer is pointless to everyone other than yourself.

Perhaps my previous text was not very clear. But, I don’t think prayer is pointless.

[benchwarmer]

...
By your own admission you don't know if that person will go to heaven and be healed, so your prayer is pointless to everyone other than yourself.

Perhaps my previous text was not very clear. But, I don’t think prayer is pointless.

How can it NOT be pointless? If God's will is going to be done, what is you asking God to do something else going to accomplish? Or what possible use is it to tell God to do what He was going to do anyway? Either way God is doing what He was going to do. All you've done is wasted some time imploring God to do what He was already going to do.

At best, you feel better about yourself for talking to God. Though if you are just chatting, I'm not sure that is the point of the OP.

The only other possibility I can see is that God is waiting around for people to ask Him to do good things otherwise He won't do them. That wouldn't be a good look. Or Biblical, given God was supposedly doing stuff before any humans were around.

Face it, prayer is pointless except for possibly making the person doing the praying feel like they are contributing. In fact, they are probably wasting time asking God to do things that God (if He exists) is already going to do. The person praying could likely better spend their time actually doing something themselves. Like chatting with the sick person, helping the sick person's family, etc.

[Paul of Tarsus]

For those who have done this, do you really want your loved one to be healed, or do you want God's will to be done?

To heck with God's will--just give us the cures! People don't want any will that keeps them sick, injured, or in pain.

Is the prayer for your benefit only and not the loved one, knowing God's will will be done anyway?

Well, if it's the other guy who needs to be delivered from infirmity, then in that case God's contrary will might be the better option. After all, what preacher can depend on miraculous cures when preaching God's will pays the bills adequately enough?

Or can prayer change God's will (God: Well, I was going to end Mable's life, but Gary and the family prayed so much I guess I'll let her live a bit longer)?

We are told that God can and sometimes does change his mind. Moses, for example, talked God out of killing all the Hebrews. God was really ticked off at them for their fearing they would be killed by the Canaanites, so God thought he'd avert that disaster by killing them himself. Moses pointed out to God that if God went through with his will to put an end to the Hebrews, then everybody would hear of it and not think well of him. God, wisely wanting to avoid bad pr, relented admitting that Moses had the better idea.

[brunumb]

Moses pointed out to God that if God went through with his will to put an end to the Hebrews, then everybody would hear of it and not think well of him. God, wisely wanting to avoid bad pr, relented admitting that Moses had the better idea.

So much for an intelligent, omniscient God. You really have to wonder how such a doofus got the job as supreme deity. That aside, Moses never existed so it is just another poor example of creative religious propaganda.

[Paul of Tarsus]

Moses pointed out to God that if God went through with his will to put an end to the Hebrews, then everybody would hear of it and not think well of him. God, wisely wanting to avoid bad pr, relented admitting that Moses had the better idea.

So much for an intelligent, omniscient God. You really have to wonder how such a doofus got the job as supreme deity. That aside, Moses never existed so it is just another poor example of creative religious propaganda.

The idea of a lovey-dovey, palsy-walsy God is a recent invention. The Hebrew God attributed to Moses was an attack dog created to scare the enemies of Israel or to scare the Israelites themselves if necessary. Any enemy of Yahweh's creators, be they foreign or Jewish, were to be kept in check by Yahweh.

[nobspeople]

For those who have done this, do you really want your loved one to be healed, or do you want God's will to be done?

To heck with God's will--just give us the cures! People don't want any will that keeps them sick, injured, or in pain.

Is the prayer for your benefit only and not the loved one, knowing God's will will be done anyway?

Well, if it's the other guy who needs to be delivered from infirmity, then in that case God's contrary will might be the better option. After all, what preacher can depend on miraculous cures when preaching God's will pays the bills adequately enough?

Or can prayer change God's will (God: Well, I was going to end Mable's life, but Gary and the family prayed so much I guess I'll let her live a bit longer)?

We are told that God can and sometimes does change his mind. Moses, for example, talked God out of killing all the Hebrews. God was really ticked off at them for their fearing they would be killed by the Canaanites, so God thought he'd avert that disaster by killing them himself. Moses pointed out to God that if God went through with his will to put an end to the Hebrews, then everybody would hear of it and not think well of him. God, wisely wanting to avoid bad pr, relented admitting that Moses had the better idea.

Thanks for the feedback.
In regards to the story of Moses, it strikes me as 'odd' and a mortal, imperfect being needed to tell a perfect, immortal thing that's supposed to know everything and be all powerful, needs to be talked out of something.
If that story is true, it's both hysterical and sad.

[Paul of Tarsus]

In regards to the story of Moses, it strikes me as 'odd' and a mortal, imperfect being needed to tell a perfect, immortal thing that's supposed to know everything and be all powerful, needs to be talked out of something.
If that story is true, it's both hysterical and sad.

I think I can explain this story. Moses is presented here as so wise and so influential not to mention on the side of the Hebrew people that he could literally talk the all-mighty out of meting out death to the Hebrews. The story has some obvious logical problems to it, but reason can take second place to the lesson that this story is telling: Obey your religious leaders, and God won't harm you.