d7
Nobody
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Galaxy fold. Samsung have been my go to since it became near impossible to get Xperias in Australia.

I love everything about it except it's size. It's way too big for most of my girl pockets. I actually regretted trading in my Samsung flip for it at first. But it's size is also of benefit when using the middle screen.

IPhone users are regularly surprised by how good my camera is.

Someone needs to purple pill Jordan Peterson. Although, I'm half suspect that he's just controlled opposition.

Removing the case is always a temptation, especially since I moved to foldable phones 😂. But they cost too much and I remember well how messed up my last phone became.

Aprilia RS250. That thing flew. I can't ride motorcycles any more but I sold it for about what I had bought it for a few years earlier, but just a few years later they were worth double what I had bought it for.

I went ceaseless with an old phone. I loved the feel of it but it only lasted a few months after I took the case away 😅

Nah, I find preachy ones most annoying, like Stella indicated. My church had this young female pastor for a little while (long story but it likely won't happen again because of her). She always made me feel like I was a fruitcake, making generalisations about the Christian walk that were not even close to my experience. She's the only one who ever did it. I am edified by listening to women all the time like today, but almost never from a woman in the pulpit 🤷🏽‍♀️

❤️‍🔥 Preach it, sister.

I've seen some awesome, some would say miraculous, answers to prayer and heard of others from friends... But other prayers I prayed in desperation weren't answered the way I wanted them to be.

I'm also aware that there is a spiritual world, people are part spiritual being and we can observe the effects in the natural when things happen in the spiritual.

Yeah, women can be a bit like this. I'm glad you found your way back 💜

Actually detesting Christendom sounds like an idea that must be personally difficult. I don't think that makes sense... I mean I think it would take its toll on me so that must be difficult on you Beave.

I've felt alot in prayer at various points in time and very little in others. But the main point should be to try to bring one's self into alignment with what God is doing within us and within the world, to increase our desire to be in His presence through enhanced understanding of His goodness. The feelings are probably irrelevant, but it all does become harder without them.

Maybe there's other church practices that help them? I get nothing from corporate worship (in the form of singing) most of the time, but occasionally I still feel like God drops a thought there for me in the midst of it.

I don't think we need to go quite to sin blocking the communication channels either. My most powerful prayers that I felt as though God prayed with me, were for others in situations that I know God cares about but I was powerless. I learnt about those situations because I was actively involved in ministry. We are in a war for our souls and contending for the souls of others. Prayer is a battlefield walkie-talkie we can't expect much of we use it to ask for a comfy bed and a pizza to be delivered.

Replying to Avatar MichaelJ

How do we talk about the Faith to people who talk about never being able to "feel" God?

A friend of mine who has drifted away from the Faith said that, every time he prayed, he never felt like anyone was listening on the other end.

A somewhat dismissive–though possibly true–response is that sin can easily get in the way of our ability to experience God in our lives. If you're entangled with some habitual sin, then yeah, it's going to be hard to receive grace in prayer and the sacraments.

I don't think that response does sufficient justice to this experience, though. St. John of the Cross writes about the "dark night of the soul" where God allows a person progressing far in holiness to feel completely cut off from Him. St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Theresa of Calcutta both experienced periods in their life of feeling cut off from God in prayer, even though they are some of the greatest saints of the modern age.

Closer to home, I'd say I have some subjective experience of God's grace in prayer at times, but I wouldn't say it's very emotional the way some people talk about it. My wife, for her part, has been a consistently practicing Catholic all her life and hasn't really felt anything in the way of subjective emotional experience in prayer. Is there something about modernity that makes it harder to "feel" God? Is it something to do with different individuals' temperaments and how they relate to God? How do we talk about the faith with people who want a relationship with God, but never have any subjective experience of that relationship? Is there any approach beyond just making an act of the will towards faith?

I think a small part of the answer might be in how Jesus taught His disciples to pray. He began with, "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." I feel more connected to God in prayer when I start with slowing myself down, remembering that God is ruler of angels and ministering angels, gloriously enthroned far above in a scene that is powerful but I can't even imagine. He made a way through His Son Jesus Christ that all who call on His name may be saved. Sometimes beginning prayer with genuine gratitude is a good practice when the first doesn't work.