WHY PRAYERS ARE SELDOM ANSWERED

A description of the book:

This book looks at the reasons why prayers are seldom answered; not from the perspectives of Biblical or spiritual wisdom, but from the perspectives of human wisdom, more specifically, from the TAO wisdom, which is the profound wisdom of the ancient sage Lao Tzu from China more than 2,600 years ago. 

Irrespective of whether you pray or not, understanding why prayers are seldom answered may provide a blueprint for your daily life and living in a toxic world so that you may survive and live as if everything is a miracle.

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A Sample from the book:

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21) 

If your attachments are your treasures in your life, they’re also where your heart is.

So, take a closer look at all your attachments in your life:

 

·  Do they define who you are? Do they separate you from others?

 

·   Have they become your treasures? Are they where your heart is?

 

·    Have they now become your identity flaws?

Before you answer all of the above self-thinking questions, now take a look at the following illustrations of attachments taken from real life:

The College Admission Cheating Scandal

On March 12, 2019, United States federal prosecutors disclosed an ongoing conspiracy with the primary purpose of influencing student college admission decisions at several prominent colleges and universities in the United States.

In that college admission cheating scandal, some wealthy parents paid as much as $75,000 per test to help their children get a better score. It was reported that at least 50 people, including some famous Hollywood stars, allegedly had participated in that scandal.

From the perspectives of the some of the participants of that scandal, it might just be a “crime with no victim” in that the wealthy parents with “good intention” to help their children’s education by lavishing their money on those who were more than willing to receive and to help; it was quite different from a crime of robbing a bank or a stranger in the street.

Getting a good education is a right-minded goal for any young individual; there’s nothing wrong with that. But if the heart is on satisfying one’s ego-self, instead of focusing on the education itself, the treasure then turns into an attachment and becomes a flaw of the ego-self, .

Worse, it could be a serious crime of greed and control. The wealthy parents were so self-centered without thinking of the impact of their selfish act on their own children, as well as on those who were potentially denied of their own admissions to those colleges and universities.

Worst, these participants might also have subconsciously reinforced their own implicit assumption—another flawed thinking of the ego-self—that a “good education” for their children will guarantee a successful career, leading to a happy marriage, and the vanity of living happily ever after. But nothing could be further from the truth.

The Harvard Admission Lawsuit

In 2012, a Chinese couple from Hong Kong filed an ugly lawsuit against an education consultant in the United States for $2 million dollars, who promised the couple that he could—but ultimately did not—get their two sons into Harvard University. 

The couple had obviously used “improper” but maybe still perfectly “legal” means to get their two sons into Harvard University. Instead of regretting and recognizing their own guilt, the couple focused only on their anger and frustration—their “expectations not fulfilled”—that they’d even go public with their own shameless act.

Getting their sons into Harvard University was one of the couple’s “treasures” due to a flawed ego with the attachment to the false identity of “having their sons go to Harvard.”

The Enlightening Illustration

Several years ago, a pastor from Hong Kong was invited to give a sermon in China.

A woman from the congregation asked the pastor if it was “right” to give money to get her son into an elite school in China. The pastor replied by saying: “Your son getting into that elite school would also imply depriving another child of that same opportunity you’re seeking for your child.”

A year later, the pastor met the same woman, who told him that her son had got into that elite school but without using her kwangxi or financial connection. The pastor then said to her: “See, God is in control; if you’d just let Him.”

 WHY PRAYERS ARE SELDOM ANSWERED