Is it possible to pray with false intentions?

Answer 1

Yes we can pray with false intentions. Which is very wrong. We can tell God that we will do this and this if he will give us what we are asking knowing that we will not keep that promise to him. When we pray we are suppose to be as humble as a small child, we lie to him to try to get our way but see the thing about it is God Knows all that we are thinking he knows from the start that we are not being honest with him or ourselves.I don't know about anyone else but falling on your knees and pouring out your heart to him will help alot more than trying to make a deal with him.

Answer

"Is It possible to pray with false intentions?"

absolutely!

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Answer

Yes, but who are you trying to deceive? You think God will actually answer that prayer knowing the beginning and end of all things?On the other hans, He pleases in a sincere prayer just as open and clear possibly.

Answer

You can speak the words but I don't think I would define it as a PRAYER unless you mean what you say. I thing Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) had it right in Huckleberry Finn when he had Huck say

"And I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they? It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from ME, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart warn't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting ON to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth SAY I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that [potentially offensive word removed to allow posting of quote] owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie--I found that out."

Answer

-Answer- The answer is yes, people do and can pray with false intentions. In The Bible, there has been instances where Pharisees, or other people who would pray for attention. They'd stand up and shout so people would think they love God. The Bible says that is wrong.

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The more interesting question: Is it possible to pray WITHOUT any false intentions whatsoever? While we are in the flesh, I believe that it is impossible to be free from all human agendas, desires and motivations. If it is at all possible for humans to reach an absolutely pure altruism, then it is reached by very few. For the rest, whatever prayers are made are and must be tainted by our nature, by our ignorance and by our necessary uncertainty of God's perfect will. In a sense, the most fundamental sin is idolatry, since we cannot know God perfectly while we are in the flesh.

This is not a reason to despair. For people of faith, the core of any prayer is reliance on the perfect will and benevolence of the deity. I don't for a moment believe the line "Be careful what you pray for-- you might GET it..." That makes the deity out to be a mean-spirited trickster. So, we pray with false intentions all the time. The problem is praying with false intentions, intentionally. That would really be evidence of a sickness of spirit.

AnswerIf we truly believe in an all-knowing God, how would it be possible to pray with genuine internalized false intentions? It would be possible, perhaps, to pray aloud publicly with false intentions - with the intention to mislead those within hearing; however it would be impossible to pray to an all-knowing and all seeing God with false intentions by virtue of God being all-knowing and all seeing.

If we genuinely believe in a benign and loving creator who is all-seeing and all knowing, we must accept that God is outside of time and space and sees all of creation from its beginning to its end at the same time, hence because of our very existence as creatures of that creation we cannot bargain with God. How can we bargain with our maker? We have nothing with which to bargain. God loved us into existence, simply because it pleased Him/Her to do so. (As God is a spirit, God has neither number nor gender.)