By then I wasnt just asking questions I was being changed by them. I was being changed by my prayers which dwindled down nearer and nearer to silence which werent confrontations with God but with the difficulty--in my own mind or in the human lot--of knowing what or how to pray. Lying awake at night I could feel myself being changed--into what I had no idea.

They say there is six degrees of separation between you and another person. However when people are praying for you there are only two degrees.

Lord whatsoever this day may bring Thy name be praised. Be gracious unto me and help me. Grant me strength to bear whatsoever Thou dost send And let not fear overrule me. I trust Thy grace and commit my life wholly into Thy Hands. Whether I live or whether I die I am with Thee and Thou are with me Lord I wait for Thy salvation and for the coming of Thy Kingdom. Amen.

The difficulties of life do not have to be unbearable. It is the way we look at them - through faith or unbelief - that makes them seem so. We must be convinced that our Father is full of love for us and that He only permits trials to come our way for our own good.Let us occupy ourselves entirely in knowing God. The more we know Him the more we will desire to know Him. As love increases with knowledge the more we know God the more we will truly love Him. We will learn to love Him equally in times of distress or in times of great joy.

Of all spiritual disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father.

If for every well-intended prayer uttered in hopes of making the world a better place there was instead a good deed accomplished the world might look as though those prayers had been answered.

Praying is talking to God. Meditating is listening.

Closing ones eyes when praying doesnt increase the odds of the prayer being answered. It merely decreases the odds of being distracted.

If you want your prayers answered you get off your knees and do the one thing youre praying someone else will do for you.

1. Myth Without God life has no meaning. There are 1.2 billion Chinese who have no predominant religion and 1 billion people in India who are predominantly Hindu. And 65 of Japans 127 million people claim to be non-believers. It is laughable to suggest that none of these billions of people are leading meaningful lives.2. Myth Prayer works. Studies have now shown that inter-cessionary prayer has no effect whatsoever of the health or well-being of the subject.3. Myth Atheists are immoral.There are hundreds of millions of non-believers on the planet living normal decent moral lives. They love their children care about others obey laws and try to keep from doing harm to others just like everyone else. In fact in predominantly non-believing countries such as in northern Europe measures of societal health such as life expectancy at birth adult literacy per capita income education homicide suicide gender equality and political coercion are better than they are in believing societies.4. Myth Belief in God is compatible with science. In the past every supernatural or paranormal explanation of phenomena that humans believed turned out to be mistaken science has always found a physical explanation that revealed that the supernatural view was a myth. Modern organisms evolved from lower life forms they werent created 6000 years ago in the finished state. Fever is not caused by demon possession. Bad weather is not the wrath of angry gods. Miracle claims have turned out to be mistakes frauds or deceptions. We have every reason to conclude that science will continue to undermine the superstitious worldview of religion.5. Myth We have immortal souls that survive death.We have mountains of evidence that makes it clear that our consciousness our beliefs our desires our thoughts all depend upon the proper functioning of our brains our nervous systems to exist. So when the brain dies all of these things that we identify with the soul also cease to exist. Despite the fact that billions of people have lived and died on this planet we do not have a single credible case of someones soul or consciousness or personality continuing to exist despite the demise of their bodies.6. Myth If there is no God everything is permitted.Consider the billions of people in China India and Japan above. If this claim was true none of them would be decent moral people. So Ghandi the Buddha and Confucius to name only a few were not moral people on this view.7. Myth Believing in God is not a cause of evil.The examples of cases where it was someones belief in God that was the justification for their evils on humankind are too numerous to mention.8. Myth God explains the origins of the universe.All of the questions that allegedly plague non-God attempts to explain our origins still apply to the faux explanation of God. The suggestion that God created everything does not make it any clearer to us where it all came from how he created it why he created it where it is all going. In fact it raises even more difficult mysteries how did God operating outside the confines of space time and natural law create or build a universe that has physical laws We have no precedent and maybe no hope of answering or understanding such a possibility. What does it mean to say that some disembodied spiritual being who knows everything and has all power loves us or has thoughts or goals or plans9. Myth Theres no harm in believing in God.Religious views inform voting how they raise their children what they think is moral and immoral what laws and legislation they pass who they are friends and enemies with what companies they invest in where they donate to charities who they approve and disapprove of who they are willing to kill or tolerate what crimes they are willing to commit and which wars they are willing to fight.