{"id":44525,"date":"2010-08-16T01:42:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T01:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/thomas-merton-on-uselessness-of-planning-our-own-answers-to\/"},"modified":"2010-08-16T01:42:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-16T01:42:00","slug":"thomas-merton-on-uselessness-of-planning-our-own-answers-to","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/thomas-merton-on-uselessness-of-planning-our-own-answers-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Merton on the Uselessness of Planning Our Own Answers to Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What is the use of praying if at the very moment of prayer, we have so little confidence in God that we are busy planning our own kind of answer to our prayer?<\/p>\n\n<p>&mdash;Thomas Merton, Catholic writer and mystic (1915-1968)<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[440],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3419,3421,3481,3592,3795,3836,4229,4268,4271,4519,4529,4631,4673,4679,4681,4682,4683,4684,4685,4821,4905,5043,5201],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-44525","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-answered-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-answers-to-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-believing-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-christian-life","tax_ctp_tags-disciplines","tax_ctp_tags-earnestness-in-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-importance-of-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-intercessory-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-international-day-of-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-national-day-of-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-need-for-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-persistence-in-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-power-of-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-prayer-in-gods-will","tax_ctp_tags-prayer-to-god","tax_ctp_tags-prayer-commanded","tax_ctp_tags-prayer-failure","tax_ctp_tags-prayerlessness","tax_ctp_tags-responsibility","tax_ctp_tags-see-you-at-the-pole","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-discipline","tax_ctp_tags-unanswered-prayer"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - 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