Posted on 09/30/2014 12:27:18 PM PDT by Idaho_Cowboy
"Why me?"
Such is the plaint, often, of people who are suffering. Rabbi Levi Meier offers an approach that is so direct and obvious that it is virtually never thought of. The obvious, often, is missed precisely for staring us in the face.
Meier is a clinical psychologist and hospital chaplain in Los Angeles, author of "Ancient Secrets: Using Stories of the Bible To Improve Our Everyday Lives." He writes of a hospital patient who had never prayed. "He had thought of prayer as a recitation of a lot of memorized verses; he had thought praying as a form of begging. He did not know — because he had never been taught — that praying is talking to G-d."
Meier writes of another patient who had prayed, the lady who asked him, Why am I suffering?:
"'Ask G-d,' I suggested. 'Include this question in your prayers.'
"She seemed surprised at the suggestion. 'But will I actually hear G-d's answer?'
"When I explained to her that of course she would hear the answer — with her inner ear — she stared at me in disbelief. Although she had prayed all her life, the idea that prayer was a dialogue — not a monologue — was foreign to her."
Not the first person to dialogue with G-d — that was Adam — but the first person to conceive of prayer as a conversation was the Patriarch Isaac.
After long negotiations with Laban, Abraham's trusted servant Eliezer returns to Canaan with Laban's sister Rebeccah as a wife for Isaac.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
I speak to him all the time. So what’s the problem? G-d will answer: Yes, No or Wait. Maybe learn Yiddish, Nu?
I’m sure hoping we can! Been doing so for years.
Can a person converse with the Divine?
Hell yes the media speaks with Obama every day.
/s
Check out St. Faustina
Yes, one of things I found surprising in getting to know him, was he has an incredible sense of humor, learning that, graces you with the ability to put almost everything in perspective, very few endeavor to know him that well.
One other thing I learned, he detests whining and begging.
WE can always talk to God, but listening for the answer seems more difficult.
Thank you for posting this important article.
When Moses was with God on the mountain, didn’t they talk? Didn’t God talk with Samuel? Didn’t God talk to Adam and Eve while walking in the garden? I have never thought of prayer as being memorized verses. Different perspectives, I guess. I did like the “we” part of prayer. Very loving of your neighbor as yourself.
As Nicole C. Mullen says, I spoke to Him this morning.....
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