Last night, I prayed,
God reveal yourself to me, and let me know You.
If that means to know You through Jesus Christ, in the pages of the Bible, in the communty of Christians, or in the ritual and liturgy of the Church, then let me know You that way.
If that means to know You through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, then let me know You that way.
If that means to know You in silence, in peace, in integrity, and in lisetning to the Light, then let me know You that way.
If that means to know You through the trees, through magick, the awesome power and majesty of nature, and through the beliefs of my most ancient ancestors, then let me know You that way.
If that means to know You through His holy word as revealed through his prophet, be it Moses of Muhammad, then let me know You that way.
If You are the Tao, or Brahman, or Ahura Mazda, or simply the consciousness of the cosmos, let me know You in whatever way you would have me know You. If that means to know You through whatever path or faith or religion You might choose for me, then let me know You that way.
If You exist at all, I pray that I might know You.
But I did not get an answer.
Sailing to Byzantium 
Keep listening… 🙂
I’ve made that prayer too, and I think I see now that the answer has been playing out slowly in my life ever since.
I agree with Erik. Even though some of us have intense spiritual experiences, for most people, it’s the small things that you have to look back on to realize God’s hand in your life.
And if you need intense spiritual experiences to believe, God knows that and will give you that in due time (but usually when you least expect it).
Kullervo,
There are many questions to which I have yet to have received a response. Don’t give up yet on getting an answer. If it takes until the day you die, don’t give up.
That just doesn’t make any sense, Daniel. That means deciding what the answer is going to be and persisting until I get it. Of course then the answer will come, but it will come because I made it come, not because God answered my prayers.
If there is no God, he is not going to answer. Or, alternately, if there is a God but he does not answer prayers (any prayers, just my prayers, or just this prayer), then he is not going to answer.
Based on what should I keep asking and asking and never quitting? It’d be like calling a friend whose number had been disconnected, long after the friend had moved away, but stubbornly insisting that someday he’s going to pick up the phone.
Eventually, it becomes reasonable to conclude that no answer is coming.
Kullervo,
It sounds like you do believe in God–and I think you would have a hard time with the idea of atheism.
So, as Daniel said, keep asking and listening for where He wants you to be. How He wants you best to seek Him (Her/It ;)).
It doesn’t mean deciding on an answer and persisting until you get it–because you weren’t asking God to tell you if one specific church was True. You were asking God to help you become closer. Assuming there is a God that answers prayers–I think that’s the kind of prayer He’ll answer. Maybe not immediately, and maybe through experience.
I mean, what if you had heard a voice that said, Kull, my friend, you should lean towards the Ringatang Church that your wife just made up for purposes of this comment, you wouldn’t have been able to rely on that (not only because you wouldn’t know what the Ringatang Church was, cuz I only just now made it up!). I think that you’ll get an answer–you’ll find peace as you look.
Kullervo, my son. It’s all a bunch of bullshit. I appear to someone here or someone there, just as a personal favor, and they take the liberty of forming a cult based on their experiences. Moses, Paul, Mohammed, Joe Smith…same thing, over and over. I appear, tell them that I love ’em and that their sins are forgiven, and poof! A new religion is spawned. You think I would have learned my lesson by now.
You can expect your personal visitation shortly, all I ask is that you don’t start some weird, pseudo-fertility cult of your own, mmkay?
Peace out, kiddo.
Haha!
Good one, God.
But seriously, did it occur to you that you were not praying for an *answer* at all? You were praying for a result. You said, “God, do such-and-such”. Just something to keep in mind; it’s easy to always think of prayers in terms of answers to questions, but with 99% of prayers, that’s not even the case. You asked for something sort of vague, “to be closer”– can you blame God if the result is vague as well?
Also, the question of whether God answers questions is different from the question of whether God will do what you say, even if you have a hunch that he is morally bound to do so.
Hi Kullervo!
For my own little 2 cents: What I’ve noticed is that more often than not there *are* answers to these prayers, that God (or God/ddesses) is speaking and answering all the time, but that it may take a certain way of listening or seeing to squirrel them out. One answer may take years to unfold (or years to decipher – “moving in mysterious ways” and all that) – I’ve got at least a couple in particular that have been unfolding since I was 13 years old – every time a petal unfurls, I’m a little more amazed. That may sound like some poetic way to say nothing, but it’s the best I can do at describing it. And I certainly don’t always see it in this lovely way – most of the time I’m really pissed off about it. 🙂 But I do find it occasionally helpful to imagine that I *am* receiving an answer but that I’m just not hearing/seeing it – it creates an opportunity to shift my perspective.
-S
Hmm. Goselpagan, that gives me something to think about.
But of course, I would prefer some sort of dramatic manifestation, at the very least something much like God’s helpful e-comment above.
But where do i get off telling God what to do?
You probably got no answer because you were talking to yourself. Next time, throw Allah, Zeus, and the Dalai Lama in the mix too, just to see who answers you first. I’m guessing you’ll be waiting a long, long time.
Sometimes I wish that the God of the old testament will just come down and light a fire on my altar (or maybe fireplace in this modern world) just so I know he’s there….
Hmm – you guys got a fireplace? We can have a little prayer contest 😉
gospelpagan
I was thinking something along the lines–I don’t assume that God’s answer would somehow conform to our sense of time and immediacy.
I once heard that God answers all prayers–just that the answer isn’t always “yes.” I also think that the answer sometimes takes a bit longer than we expect.
Humans don’t even all answer in the same way at the same speed.
Hey,
You could use some help
Talk to your church pastor and read the bible
God may not answer your prayers right away
It takes time
I will pray for you
-Dkamp-