# Do you pray?



## insaticiable (Feb 23, 2010)

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anyone on here prays or not, and if so, does it help? I find that I start to pray to God when things get really bad, but I'll only do it once or twice and just leave it at that. I don't have the inclination to pray most of the time. Sometimes I feel that God is not hearing me...ignoring me...I'm not sure.

When I recovered briefly last year for 3 weeks I REALLY started to believe in God again. I believed that he had answered my prayers and that He was there for me. Funny how when things work out, your faith in God soars, but when things go downhill, your faith begins to fall and waiver. At least this is how it is for me.

Please don't start a religious debate here. I just want to know your experiences with praying.


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## DP boy (Mar 20, 2012)

God only ignores for so long


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## DP boy (Mar 20, 2012)

give it time you came out of this for three weeks you deff can come out of it for good


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## Brizia_F (Feb 7, 2012)

Well I have a strong believe on God







And I do believe that praying has help me cope with this . My grandma which I loved a lot passed away. And like every night I talk to her and I believe she's listening to me , I asked her to help me be strong and beat this and since I started my DP/DR has been losing it's strength and everyday I feel so calm and happy . She always worried about how we were about our health and if we were doing ok. I know she's taking care of me from Heaven :')


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## Jayden (Feb 9, 2011)

.


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## Guest (May 5, 2012)

I do pray. Though, most of my prayers are said through a sort of Affirmation, which is: I say this, "The Lord knows my prayers. The Lord knows my fears." I feel like, since I don't know exactly who I am, through being DP, and PLUS having a blank mind, this Affirmation Prayer seems to cover almost everything. In other words I believe that God knows what's best for me.


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## insaticiable (Feb 23, 2010)

What did Jayd say that deserved to get -2?


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## Guest (May 6, 2012)

insaticiable said:


> What did Jayd say that deserved to get -2?


He said, "I don't believe in God, I believe in Myself."


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## Jayden (Feb 9, 2011)

I don't see how believing in myself is offensive. I thought that was a positive thing. Its not like I said religion is wrong or anything.


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## Guest (May 7, 2012)

Jayd said:


> I don't see how believing in myself is offensive. I thought that was a positive thing. Its not like I said religion is wrong or anything.


I did not thumb you down, Jayd. And I agree that believing in yourself is a positive thing. But I think you got thumbed down because in the OP it says this is not a debate. Stating your opinion is fine, but "Please don't start a religious debate here. I just want to know your experiences with praying." Your reply had nothing to do with your experiences with praying and also invites a religious debate.


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## Jayden (Feb 9, 2011)

Native said:


> I did not thumb you down, Jayd. And I agree that believing in yourself is a positive thing. But I think you got thumbed down because in the OP it says this is not a debate. Stating your opinion is fine, but "Please don't start a religious debate here. I just want to know your experiences with praying." Your reply had nothing to do with your experiences with praying and also invites a religious debate.


Yeah I saw that after I posted. I guess I came off a bit rude. My bad.


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## insaticiable (Feb 23, 2010)

Jayd said:


> Yeah I saw that after I posted. I guess I came off a bit rude. My bad.


I'm not offended at all Jayd. I appreciate your opinion and commend you on having the strength to believe in yourself, but I don't hold the same faith in myself as you. I feel weak, and feel that I'm not strong enough to heal myself (yet), so that is why I seek help from God at this point in my life.


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## DP boy (Mar 20, 2012)

the new age and new world order will slowly lead everyone to stop beliving in God and convice the poupulation everyone who does is a kook or idiot for the pourpose to slowly phase in goverment worship. that is the grand plan this is reality its very freighting when you take the blinders off and see what is really going on. The majority of people are suckered into this dont be one of them , praying is one of the best things you can do. God answers prayers in two ways miricles or giving you the tools you need to accomplish what you have asked for. usually he answers by giving you the tools you just have to be aware and vigilant to what those are. you will all overcome this regardless but you will be reborn through this experince if you turn to God. And I dont mean like a born again christain evengelist whatever im not one of those im a christian but I reject all doniminations of my religion they are all flawed I dont go to chruch beacuse alot of churches now days preach complete bullshit. When I say reborn I mean youll be a knew person with a clean slate full of life and happyness and you will understand the meaning of life.


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## cbeck (Feb 8, 2008)

DP boy said:


> the new age and new world order will slowly lead everyone to stop beliving in God and convice the poupulation everyone who does is a kook or idiot for the pourpose to slowly phase in goverment worship. that is the grand plan this is reality its very freighting when you take the blinders off and see what is really going on. The majority of people are suckered into this dont be one of them , praying is one of the best things you can do. God answers prayers in two ways miricles or giving you the tools you need to accomplish what you have asked for. usually he answers by giving you the tools you just have to be aware and vigilant to what those are. you will all overcome this regardless but you will be reborn through this experince if you turn to God. And I dont mean like a born again christain evengelist whatever im not one of those im a christian but I reject all doniminations of my religion they are all flawed I dont go to chruch beacuse alot of churches now days preach complete bullshit. When I say reborn I mean youll be a knew person with a clean slate full of life and happyness and you will understand the meaning of life.


Well said DP Boy!


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## Guest (May 9, 2012)

Yes i pray all the time and ask God to end this for me


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## Felicity (Feb 7, 2011)

All the time.


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## opie37060 (Jan 9, 2010)

I used to pray quite a bit. But over the years I got discouraged because I still felt the same. I kind of got angry at god for not healing me and kind of rebelled. Don't get me wrong I do believe in god and seen some crazy spiritual things but I didn't understand why I wasn't getting healed. I guess he has a plan for all of us. I am going to start praying again cause it can't hurt any.


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## Jayden (Feb 9, 2011)

I actually did pray today while I was sitting down in the shower haha. I didn't really say like "Dear God" but I just simply prayed to something.


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## Guest (Sep 26, 2012)

cbeck said:


> Well said DP Boy!


Agreed!


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## drex (Sep 25, 2012)

I'm praying believing for results. I pray to Jesus Christ for courage since anxiety causes the problem. 
+ I had to ask for forgiveness for trippin and alcohol


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## Guest (Oct 16, 2012)

DP boy said:


> the new age and new world order will slowly lead everyone to stop beliving in God and convice the poupulation everyone who does is a kook or idiot for the pourpose to slowly phase in goverment worship. that is the grand plan this is reality


If you want to believe that, then you are victimizing yourself.


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## Guest (Oct 16, 2012)

Having faith, even one person at a time, is enough to move mountains. Even if it is just for yourself in the beginning, that is a good starting point. 
It is also a great way to alleviate your anxious feelings.

We shall overcome, and peace be with you.


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## Lynxabc (Nov 28, 2012)

I do and it helps.


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## ValleyGirl (Nov 10, 2017)

I pray pretty much constantly. I'd say 20 plus times a day. It's like a constant on going conversation with God.

I went through a period of time, when I first got dp, where I seriously began to doubt God's existence. I was suffering and I pleaded constantly for God to take away my dp. In the period of like 4 months I went from no dp to wanting to die every single day. After begging and pleading and suffering, I decided that IF there was a God, he obviously didn't give a crap about me because he wouldn't let his children suffer. I came incredibly close to walking away all together. It was at this point that, I believe, God began reaching out to me. He started sending people into my life to minister to me and show me that he loved me. These random strangers would contact me on the internet or by phone and tell me God loved me. They would pray for me and encourage me. After I recognized that it was God speaking to me through them, because he knew I wouldn't listen any other way, those people disappeared. Like vanished. I honestly wonder if those weren't honest to goodness Angels.

Another thing that help me is a series of sermons that were done at my church on the 23rd Psalm. For those of you who don't know here it is:

The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

The first sermon discussed the first line in the psalm, about God being a shepherd and us his sheep. One thing that stood out to me in the sermon was when my pastor explained that if there was a sheep in a flock that kept wandering off, that the shepherd would leave all of the other sheep to go find that one who was lost. And if the sheep would not stop wandering off, the shepherd would actually break one of the sheep's leg so that it could not get away again. But he did not leave the sheep to suffer. He would carry that sheep on his back everywhere he went. He would hold the sheep while he slept. He would hand feed it and hold it while it drank. During the time it took for the sheep's leg to heal, the sheep would become very attached to the shepherd. And when the sheep was healed and able to walk again, the sheep wouldn't wander off because it wanted to be close to the loving care of the Shepherd.
That was truly a hard pill for me to swallow. To think that God might purposely allow us to be broken when we keep wandering away for him. So that we come to the end of ourselves and only have him to rely on. During that time he shows us his love and care and we finally learn that his arms are the best place to be and we don't wander again after that.
It took me a while to wrestle with that one. I think most people view God as a cosmic Santa Claus, like he's only every supposed to shower us with presents and cheer. But God appointed himself our father and as a father, he disciplines us out of love when we need it. I'm a mother and I spank my kids sometimes. I don't do it because I hate them. I do it because whatever they were doing leading up to the spanking was a behavior that I felt was either unsafe or if left unaddressed, would affect their character as grown ups. It does hurt to get spanked. My kids certainly cry and scream at me in anger "why did you do that?". They are not happy with me. But they do learn a lesson and all the lessons I teach my children are to help mold them into good people later on in life. I realized through this sermon that God does that same thing with us. It isn't always good, good, good in a relationship with God. Sometimes we are doing something he thinks needs corrected so he gives us a devine spanking. For me, DP was that spanking. I was doing a lot of things, just prior to getting dp, that were very bad. Both from a Christian standpoint and from a general society standpoint. There are some universal morals that all people tend to follow and the things I was doing were definitely in opposition to those. Like I said, it was really hard for me to swallow this pill because, before this, I had the idea that God was a cosmic Santa Claus and that God would never allow bad things to happen. Simply put, that just isn't true. But I realized that when he does allow them to happen, it is actually out of love. Sometimes that's something you cannot understand until you are a parent yourself.

The second sermon that stood out to me was the line about walking through the valley of the shadow of death. The valley of the shadow of death is an actual valley in the middle east. Every year Shepherds would have to drive their herds of sheep through that valley to get to the prime grazing land on the other side. The valley has very tall walls and an extremely narrow passageway. It is so narrow that it is always dark in there. It is filled with poisonous snakes. Sheep are easily terrified and walking through this valley is very scary for them. It is a long walk through a dark and terrifying place but when they emerge on the other side, they find themselves in a lush green paradise.
I realized that the trials in our lives, like dp, are our own "valley of the shadow of death". When we come upon them, we take one look and want to run the other way. But we don't realize that we are living in a desert on this side of the valley and that on the otherside is paradise. I believe that God calls us to walk through dark terrifying trials so that he can reward us with something better than we ever had at the end. In the case of dp, we really have no choice but to walk through that valley. One day we find ourselves right in the middle of it and we cannot turn back. It is dark, it feels endless and deadly, and we are terrified. The walls are so tight in on us, they are too high to climb. We cannot turn back so we have to move forward. For a long time we walk in darkness but, eventually, we start to see some light. As we get closer and closer, the light get brighter and brighter, and when we emerge on the otherside, we find ourselves in a place more sweet and more beautiful than we've ever experienced before.

I know that, for me, dp has been a very necessary journey. When it was bad, I hated every single second of it. But as I am beginning to emerge on the other side, I can see all of the positive changes that have happened in my heart and in my mind. Before dp I was an angry, anxious, chronic pessimist. I was always negative, always critical, horribly selfish. I never saw any good in life and I believed that everything sucked so why even bother hoping for better. I was in an abusive marriage that I was too codependent to leave. I had very unhealthy relationships with family and friends. I had an uncontrollable need to try and slove other people's problems for them, even if they didn't ask me to. I would allow people to attach to me and become emotional leaches. I would allow family members to be mean and abusive to me because I felt like family was the most important thing and you stuck with them no matter how bad they treated you. Dp changed all of that. In the process, I dumped all of the emotional leaches, I stood up to my family and demanded they treat me with respect or they wouldn't have me in their lives, I left and divorced my abusive husband, I lost my need to slove other people's problems because trying to live through each day was a problem enough for me. I got to a place where I literally felt like I had to choose to allow dp to make me kill myself or fight to live. I had to fight every single day to find one little glimmer of positivity to hold onto so I didn't just end it all. Over the past 3 years, that has changed me profoundly. I am now an optimist. I always look for the good in every situation now. I encourage others instead of bringing them down like I used to. I cling to hope like a person clings to a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean.

So that's my really long round about way of explaining why I pray so often. It's because I do believe God exists. I believe that he has been with me every single painful second of my dp. I KNOW that everything I have today was provided by him. I know that God allowed my dp to happen and I am actually thankful for it because it has changed me all for the good.


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## ValleyGirl (Nov 10, 2017)

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## QueenZ (Jan 7, 2013)

I pray and ask God help me and guide me and I believe through every step in my life God was there for me. You need to have faith then only you will start believing.


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## mipmunk40 (Nov 13, 2012)

[sup]I pray to god every night for him to take this DP away, so far he hasn't answered or has said no, cos just over 3 months and DP is still with me.....







[/sup]


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