Does God pray?

[jynnan tonnix]

I posted this question over on my "house hunting woes" thread over in chatter, but it was off topic, and that thread had kinda run its course anyway, so I'm bringing it over here, since it's not something I'm familiar with.

The sellers of the house we are (hopefully) buying are ordained ministers & messianic Jews, and I got this quote off their website where it chronicled the wife's battle with Lyme disease.

The passage which puzzled me was this (bold is mine):

In April of 2003, Susan was attacked physically and became very ill. She was at the brink of death many times, and went to over 40 doctors. No one knew what was happening to her; she eventually wound up in a wheel chair. So like the woman with the issue of blood in the New Testament, who had spent all her money on doctors, so the same happened to Susan, and her faith was strongly tested. The only words Susan heard from the Lord during this time was “Satan is trying to sift you like wheat, but I am praying for you that your faith fail not.” When she heard these words in her heart from The Lord, she also saw a vision of The Lord, Jesus/Yeshua sitting on His Throne, wearing a beautiful long red robe with braids of gold on His shoulders, and He was leaning forward looking down into the earth praying and interceding for His people, just as the bible says. So just as Jesus/Yeshua said to the woman in the bible, as she reached out to touch the hem of His garment “Woman, your faith has made you whole”, so too Susan’s faith had to reach out in a greater and stronger way.

The claim is that this is Biblical, but I'm not all that familiar with the Bible as a whole, and don't recall anything offhand which says that God prays. Who does he pray to? Does he have control over whether his prayers are answered?

Is anyone else familiar with this concept?

[Noman Peopled]

bm

[The Wannabe]

I did a quick google search, and all i could come up with was this Rabbi's blog: http://blog.webyeshiva.org/aggada/does-god-pray-aggada-insight-by-rabbi-yitzchak-blau

R. Yohanan said in the name of R. Yossi: “From where do we know that God prays? As it says ‘I will bring them to my holy mountain, and I will cause them to rejoice in beit tefilati’ (Isaiah 56:7). It does not say “house of your prayer” but rather “house of my prayer.” From here we see that God prays.”

The idea of Yahweh praying is, well, odd.  Wouldn't it be funny if he was just as powerless as the rest of us mere mortals?  Maybe he decided to follow the lead of his followers and began to pray to an all powerful, psychological crutch of his own making.  Deity see, deity do.  

[stuffin]

If god is praying to an even higher authority, then we need to go over his head. 

[changeling]

Many Christians believe that Jesus is the God and he prayed to God all the time.

[jynnan tonnix]

So if someone prays to Jesus, does that mean he needs to pray it forward to get the request past the big guy?

I know a lot of Christians don't believe in intercessory prayer, as in the way Catholics pray to various saints, who then supposedly pass the prayer on to god, but these same Christians will basically end all their prayers with "in Jesus' name". But is Jesus the highest authority in this case? Jesus incarnate might have prayed to God the Father, but now that he is back in heaven, is his will equal to God's?

[Garja]

I think so... Probably safer to say "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost".  Those are the magic words, and guarantee that God will answer prayer!!!!!!. 




Just remember that they answer may be "yes", "no", or "maybe later".




I know I am still relatively new, but we all know that was sarcastic right?

[Zankuu]

jynnan, the only time I remember Jesus "praying" was when he looked up and spoke to Yahweh prior to his crucifixion in the Gospel of John. As far as Yahweh praying, it never happened- except when he said, "OK Holy Spirit, let's hope this genocide thing doesn't come back and bite us in the ass." - Diary of Holy Fuckups 1:1

[jdawg70]

So if someone prays to Jesus, does that mean he needs to pray it forward to get the request past the big guy?

I know a lot of Christians don't believe in intercessory prayer, as in the way Catholics pray to various saints, who then supposedly pass the prayer on to god, but these same Christians will basically end all their prayers with "in Jesus' name". But is Jesus the highest authority in this case? Jesus incarnate might have prayed to God the Father, but now that he is back in heaven, is his will equal to God's?

So I haven't gone through the catechisms regarding intercessory prayer, but from what I (hazily) remember:

If you go Catholic (or at least certain varieties/locations thereof), you get a sort of hierarchy of prayer authority that is subdivided into specialized areas of expertise or responsibility.  I think the idea was that you prayed to the right entity, and, if you prayed correctly, god would use that entity as the tool to answer the prayer.  There's the whole patron saint concept - for example, if I lost my keys, I would pray to St. Anthony (patron saint of lost stuffs or somesuch), and then god would help St. Anthony guide you to your keys because...that...would...work...more...better with St. Anthony on the case.  If you were making a sufficiently needy prayer, you would have to pray to The Virgin Mary^TM because...something...compassion...Jesus listens to her...god works in mysterious ways.

Surprisingly, I don't really recall a whole lot of praying directly to Jesus.  Mostly the prayers were supposed to be to god, The Virgin Mary^TM, or the appointed saint closest to the theme of your prayer.

So you basically pray to the right (not-at-all-deity-like-as-it-is-a-monotheistic-religion) saint or other revered entity and it's not so much the saint or whatever has greater authority but is the right entity to implore god's will through.  St. Christopher is the authority on wandering around buying touristy crap, St. Anthony is the authority on losing your junk, and St. Bastard is the authority on biscuits.

Catholic heaven is basically a bureaucratic mess of TPS reports and an ill-defined mission statement.

[Nam]

Biblegod has always reminded me of the film Explorers. The aliens[1] being just kids and somewhere out there there's a bigger alien[2], and we just get the whiney version.

-Nam

1.	though, they being cooler.
2.	or in this case: god

[Poseidon]

 Ask a baptist preacher, or any of a few other varieties, and he will explain that god has a plan for everyone and everything. All things are prearranged even war, pestilence, and mortgage foreclosures. Then if we pray to god or one of his assistants, aren't we asking him to screw up his carefully laid plans?  He ain't changing his plan for some poor mortal.  The grand plan is all written according to his will. So why would you presume to influence the big guy in the sky with your silly assed prayer?

[Nam]

^well, they did create the dude, they can change him to suit their needs all they want. Wait! They do that anyway.

Nevermind.

-Nam