Testifying: financial miracle with my light bill, thanks for prayers

[texpatriot2004]

Last week I had a bit of a melt down and reached out to DU in a moment of panic. My electric bill was doubling again. Long story but suffice it to say that prayer works. By some miracle they (Reliant Energy) did not end up charging us what they were going to. In fact, the CSR I spoke with today said she had "never seen this happen." She said I was "lucky" but I told her it wasn't luck it was prayer.

Thank you all who were there in my moment of need. I thank God for his abundant supply (which I cannot always see) and for taking such good care of us. I thank God for all the miracles we receive...and these days, especially the financial ones.

[roguevalley]

1. If something good came to you, then good for you, honey.

[Proud2BaLiberalMom]

2. I'm with you, sister...

I really know how you feel. Times are getting so very tough.
We won't be hooking up our furnace this year, second year in a row. We have a lovely, but small home, so we use space heaters only in the rooms we are occupying at the time, and our electric bill went up by about 35% last month. I think the utility company just assumes we are using more of their product, so they charge us more automatically. I hate to see what it's going to be next month!
Prayer can indeed work miracles, and it's even more effective when done universally. Everyone doesn't have to call God by the same name, we just need to have faith. Hang in there, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? ;)

[JanusAscending]

3. Been there, done that !!!

God always comes through for me . All of our worrying can't help us, but He can and does!! He NEVER FAILS! So happy to hear He was there for You in your time of need!! May He continue to Bless us all. COURAGE!! DC

[WatchWhatISay]

4. Gee, God doesnt usually do what I want?

Is there something wrong with me?

[texpatriot2004]

5. No, God doesn't always do what I want either. This time God

helped and I wanted to share it because I got moral support from DU. I am grateful that God helped with this, very grateful.

[FM Arouet666]

7. You sin too much, Stop it now.

God always does what I want. And what I want is for god to dress up like Little Bow Peep, wear a pink nightie, and feed me grapes. Damn, she is here, nice legs...... :evilgrin:

[Skittles]

9. don't even get me started

don't even :(

[FM Arouet666]

6. Do you really believe that a god took part in your energy woes?

I find the notion astonishing, an omnipotent god which acts to correct your electric bill. The power of prayer? Perhaps a more rational explanation can be found, do you really believe that your experience is beyond anything which can be explained in the natural world?

Belief in a personal deity which fixes excessive energy bills? The same deity which sits ideally through the Holocaust, fiddles during hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes, and painfully silent during the current GOP debacle, the Iraq War.

Glad you have a god to sort out the energy woes, but I think I will have to stick with rational atheism.

:evilfrown:

[BiggJawn]

11. And I have to wonder about the thousands...

..who got their power shut off this week.

Guess they didn't pray hard enough, or they had unconfessed sin in their lives, or Gawd is like Bob Barker on "The Price is Right" and he just picks a person at random out of the studio audience to favour and make the rest of us jealous...

I'm glad Tex got the electric bill straightened out, I'm just puzzled as to the source of that straightening...

Maybe I need to pray that my furnace will magically transubstantiate into a 95% efficient one?

Ah, there's the key word, "Magically".... There's NO "magic"...

[unschooler]

18. Why do you care whether texpatriot believes a god fixed his bill?

I agree with your rationalist approach, but I don't recall anyone asking for your opinion or mine. Let the man have his fun. He's not using his personal deity as an excuse for hurting anyone.

[FM Arouet666]

19. Give me a break, HELLO

He is posting to a public forum, if he does not want an opinion he could sit at home with the lords freebie energy and be content.

[unschooler]

20. I think he's expressing appreciation. Not asking for a critique.

I just know how I would feel if I publicly stated my (lack of) beliefs, and five or six fundies jumped all over me.

The guy was trying to be nice to his co-religionists. Personally, I find that admirable.

[FM Arouet666]

21. Interpret his motives as you like

Not asking for a critique?

Intelligent design vs evolution in the courts, a supreme court nominee to the right of Scalia and Thomas, Roe vs Wade in jeopardy, the rise of religious conservatives at the behest of a christian fundie president. The current religious climate is stretching the non-believer's tolerance to the breaking point.

I am pretty sure that any post offering an extreme religious philosophy will be met with harsh comment. Again, if you don't want a critique, don't post.

[trotsky]

23. This is not the place to chummy-chum with co-religionists.

It's the open Religion/Theology forum. The "safe haven" is a group, the Liberal Christians group.

Posts in this forum are fair game for commentary and critical analysis.

[Dorian Gray]

24. It certainly is a public forum...

and I agree that a better place for the original post would have been in the Liberal Christian forum to avoid this type of discussion, but one doesn't have to be critical, either. But that's neither here nor there.

As for the OP, I am happy that his personal energy crisis was avoided. I also will pray, myself, that the others who are suffering through the same, similar, or worse circumstances will find a solution. Whether my own petitions will be headed or not, I do not know. But, they won't hurt anybody or anything.

[trotsky]

25. I take an opposing view.

I believe that this kind of thinking does indeed hurt people. Certainly there will be some things that are out of our control and having religion as a coping mechanism to deal with unfavorable outcomes can have definite positive psychological effects. But overall, relying on magic spells, prayers, beads, etc. to *hopefully* solve your problems takes energy and effort away from real, actual work that can be done to address them. As Robert Ingersoll once so eloquently said, "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray."

Plus there's the danger in thinking that if your favors were granted, you must be pleasing god, whereas if someone else's weren't, they obviously were sinning. That's how the religious right thinks, and it's terrible for society.

[funflower]

26. All of the rational arguments in the world won't get you very far if you

insult the people you are trying to persuade.

[trotsky]

27. If telling someone I think they're wrong is insulting them,

then what's the point of disagreement and discussion?

[funflower]

28. I'm not speaking about you specifically, but there is a tendency on the

part of some atheists to disregard the emotional components of some people's statements about their religion.

I don't read "thank God for fixing my light bill problem" as the kind of statement that creates an opportunity for effective persuasion based on pointing out the illogic of the speaker's underlying suppositions about a putative deity.

I support the substance of what you're saying. I just think many atheists, who I suspect tend to have highly developed rational faculties, don't realize how dismissive they come across to people who may be more intuitive in their thinking.

I try to imagine how I would feel if the tables were turned and I posted a comment such as "I'm so glad I don't rely on prayer any more" and a bunch of orthodox religionists immediately dismissed my feelings (and, by extension, me) as stupid, illogical and baseless. Personally, I would distinguish this from a post asserting "prayer doesn't work," which would not be about my feelings but would be a broad theological (or anti-theological) resolution inviting debate.

I guess I think that the gloves should stay on where people are talking not about theology but about their personal feelings (even where theological suppositions underly those statements).

[mia]

8. I'm glad that your prayers were answered.

Giving thanks for the good things that happen always helps lift the spirits.

[ClintonTyree]

10. I remember your post well.........

I'm not convinced it was prayer however since many people's prayers go unanswered, but whatever the reason, :party: GOOD FOR YOU!
I still think you're being tremendously gouged as it is for electricity, but then again I live about 70 miles from Niagara Falls and electricity has never been much of a problem here. Even when I lived in Florida though I never had an electric bill above $100 a month. You folks in Houston are getting shafted, royally shafted!
I'm glad everything worked out for your benefit and you go ahead and believe whatever you want to about how and why it happened. The important thing is that it DID happen! :)

[trotsky]

12. I find it very disturbing...

when people credit god for such tiny things yet don't dwell on the millions of prayers, some of them for just a few minutes more of life, that go unanswered every day. God helps you with your power bill, but he can't stop a child from being raped by a priest? You thank your god for "taking such good care of us" yet good Christians are murdered, raped, and beaten every day.

Sorry, I just can't understand that kind of thinking. Like I said, I actually find it rather disturbing.

[BiggJawn]

13. It's like the airliner crash where ONE child lives.

One cute little kid lives, 289 die.
Yet people are quick to credit their Gawd with this "miracle".
What about the other 289? If Gawd REALLY wanted to fill the churches the following Sunday, He would have saved ALL 290, and showboated his ass off doing it.

So that leaves me with the Unanswerable, Is Gawd really not all that powerful, that He can't save everybody? Or does he have an indifference towards His "children" that he could save them, but just couldn't be bothered? Or is He a real sick puppy that gets His rocks off watching people die when He knows He could save them?

[trotsky]

14. Go down that route, and you essentially end up with Calvinism.

God saves those that he has decided to save, and that's all you need to know.

[beam me up scottie]

15. Hey

Are you guys allowed to complain about your treatment on DU in the Atheists group now?

[trotsky]

16. Are you persecuting me?

I will NOT sit in the back of the bus! ;-)

[beam me up scottie]

17. I was wondering when they changed the rules.

Since some people were punished for using the atheists group to complain, I was curious whether or not you were allowed to bitch now too.

Because the "persecuted" ones (you know, the ones who screamed bloody murder a few weeks back?) sure are pissing and moaning and doing all of the things we were told not to do.

[Beetwasher]

22. I Too Had A Financial Miracle and Would Like To Thank People For Prayers

I found a penny. Heads up! Thank you Jesus! :eyes:

There was also that matter of the hangnail. Thank you lord for healing me of that painful malady, for surely I was more deserving of having my hangnail healed than all the dead children in Iraq were deserving of life. Thank you Jesus and god for healing my hangnail instead of saving their lives. I know I deserve your attention more than they do. Amen.