I grew up in a very religious household and extended family. Every Wednesday night I went to my youth group where my friends and I would have a small worship service and then a few hours of games, activities, and general fun and food. Every Sunday morning we attended the regular church service followed by going out to eat and spending the afternoon watching NFL on tv.

I distinctly recall the religious routine as a child. Wake up and pray before school. Pray when you eat a meal. Pray before bed. Pray before and after church. Pray when you want something. Pray pray pray.

Whether you're religious or not, I am positive at some point in your life you have heard someone say "praying for you" or "sending prayers" or "prayers are appreciated" etc... whether it was to you directly or to someone you know.

2016 is probably one of the worst years of my life time so far. I wouldn't say it is the worst year because I don't know what the future holds. I do know that many bad things happened in 2016 and that abundance has really put a bruise on the year as a whole despite the good moments glistening in between the bad. Looking at all of the bad things, I cannot tell you how many times people have said "praying for you" "send prayers" "keep me in your prayers" "give me your prayers" "I need any and all prayers right now!" etc...

It got me really thinking about things. Many religious people proactively pray as a way of honoring and worshiping God. They aren't asking for anything out of selfish desire but just blessing the people around them and speaking positive energy into the world and showing gratitude for all of the riches of their lives. Likewise during meals, they bless the food and nourishment it will provide as well as thanking God and those around them for being given a meal, a roof over their heads, a loving family, a career, etc...Then there are prayers out of hope. Maybe someone is newly married or pregnant and people pray for them to send protection, confidence, and guidance for them. Maybe someone is deathly ill and someone prays for them to be healed and make a quick recovery.

Those types of situations are people praying for positive things to enter a persons life, but generally they aren't things that benefit themselves.

The topic I really want to discuss is people who seek out prayers in hopes that the prayers will grant them the resolve they are looking for. As if a prayer grants them a genie and a wish. I've just noticed a lot this year that people only ask for prayer when something bad happens. I'm not saying that asking for prayer is completely bad and that you shouldn't ever do it... but the way certain people I know ask for it is out of desperation, selfishness, etc...

I cannot say whether or not my prayers have ever aided someone but I can say that any time I prayed to God for something to happen to me, it never happened the way I wanted to. It wasn't always a bad outcome, but it was never what I wanted from the prayer specifically. So for example say I'm stressed about bills and instead of assessing my income and what I'm spending my money on and making adjustments or holding back on this and that, I might say a prayer and ask God to bless me with more money or bless me with stressing less over the situation when in fact, I am in control of the situation and I am the reason the problem persists and I am also the solution to the problem. I can solve my problem without having an outside force intervene therefore the prayer has no effect on the outcome of my situation, I do. Now asking God to guide me to stress less over my problem might be less of a greedy thing to do but I still feel like it wouldn't even do anything. And it's not that I doubt God, his power, and the things he has done for people, but I feel like humans are self-serving and asking God for favors is not to be taken lightly. I think it's important to honor him, and thank him, and to send blessings over others, but asking him to give us stuff is selfish in my opinion.

I've grown to never ask God for things for two reasons. 1 because I don't want to feel like I'm "borrowing daddy's credit card" ya know? 2 I feel like prayers should be reserved for speaking good things onto others and the world.

When my family members pray, they pray for my boyfriend and I to get a good nights sleep. They pray for us to have a good day at work and that our co-workers and their families are blessed. They pray that we continue to grow as people and be strong and healthy etc... they never call blessings onto themselves from a desire driven perspective.

I mean we can all sit here and ask God for more money, a nice house, a nice car, a good looking lover, and beautiful perfect children and this and that... but all of that is driven from a selfish, egotistical, mindset and I guarantee that those prayers will never be answered. However it may also depend on your delivery of asking.

I know a girl on Facebook and recently her and her husband have been stressed out because she's going back to school, he is working full time, and their daughter is having medical issues and they're juggling the stress of their careers while trying to afford the extra costs of the medical fees etc...
They're the type of family who believes everything happens for a reason and God has a purpose for every gain and loss in their life to teach them lessons and help them grow in their faith and understanding and purpose etc... and when things get rough, they're humans... they get stressed out, and they argue, and they sin, etc... but they always seem to get through their problems, forgive each other, and make the situation work and things always work out for them. They pray constantly and have shared their testimonies about how great God has been to them and that they are sorry for doubting him and the bigger picture of time spans etc...

Honestly, I really look up to them because I've fallen away from religion almost completely. I can't remember the last time I prayed... it's been years. But when I see their posts, the pictures of their family and events, and the things going on in their life... it brings a very strong warmness to my heart. It's almost like seeing God tell stories through humans. If their life can go a certain way, then surely you and I can have that same kind of faith and trust and know that things are going to be ok. But then I wonder... is it God that is fueling this or is it just how the universe is playing things out. If God wasn't in the picture, would things have been different? I suppose that's me doubting God... but it's so hard for me to sit here and see what influence he has over this and that and what is his doing vs what was going to happen whether he was involved or not ya know?

But then I have other friends who are constantly in trouble. They can't keep a place to live, they can't hold a steady job, always broke, always in poor health, their love life is terrible, etc... their life is just so broken that it's depressing. And rather than having faith that everything will be okay and making a difference on a personal level, they demand favors and services from people. They demand attention and pity and this obnoxious amount of "what they deserve" being handed to them on a golden platter. And this is followed by asking for prayers as if they are holy donations that will suddenly dissolve their problems and that's not how prayer or life at all works.

Whether you are religious or not we can all agree that the universe does not bow down to no one. If you want something, you have to work in order to get it. How you work or what kind of work you do is up to you, but there has to be some sort of exchange.

And I feel like a lot of these things are based off of free will and desire. If your life is in shambles and you want a change then you need to use your free will and your desire to persevere and improve to drive you to work hard and that hard work will pull you out of the hole you are in and ask long as you keep up that hard work and you don't look back or fall backwards, then you will climb up higher and higher and then you can get the things that you want etc...

For example, I could easily make a gofundme page, create a sob story,  and rack in some dough to pay for whatever my cause is. That is the pan-handling of the digital age for the entitled generation that is all around me. Instead of getting a job and saving up money, we have been given the technology, the platform, and the access to instant communication and viral opportunities where you can create and fabricate content or stories to win over the emotions of complete strangers to believe you about anything. And with the click of a button people can just give you money. I see girls on Youtube & Twitch who are making $10,000 a month just talking and playing video games. I am not sending any shade because I enjoy watching them, but playing video games and talking online doesn't really require any skills in comparison to being a doctor or something. But they take a hobby and their personality and the engage with people and turn a career into it. If people are willing to watch and pay them, then they can actively make that a full time job and be set for life.

There are so many ways to make money with or without a full time/part time job. I mean, I don't have the following or traffic to be making a butt ton of money online but I have generated a little cash from my blog & youtube channel. I imagine if I became more active or created content that peaked peoples interests, I could generate enough income to pay for the things I want to buy!

I just can't really respect people who sit around and mope about their problems and expect others to go out of their way to solve them for them. I mean I can pray for you to have the motivation to better your life but I'm not going to pray for you to grow money on a tree. That's stupid and it unrealistic. But tons of people do that.

I guess I'm just really anti "asking for prayers." I feel like prayers should be provided by yourself or given to others, never asked for or begged for. It's tacky in my opinion. Especially when people have the mentality that getting prayers will resolve their problem or give them the outcome they want. I feel like prayer is meant to be a religious relationship with God, a way to bless others and speak that positive word into existence, and a way to send guidance to others but it is not a tool or a instant relief mechanism that grants cures to the world. It's not an atm where you put a card in and you get money.

If someone loses a loved one, I would pray that their family is given strength during their time of mourning and that a blanket of peace will wash over them and that God can give them closure etc...
If someone is going to a job interview, I would pray that the interview goes well and that I hope they get the job!
I'm not going to buy a lottery ticket and pray to God for it to be a winner and that the card should be for $10,000 and blah blah blah.

So to the people who demand prayers and act like prayers are a type of wish granting currency, please stop doing that. It's okay to ask for prayer if you're in need of some major support for something serious but when you ask for prayer in the wrong way it's so annoying to me.

Just stop doing it, please.

Am I alone on this one?