A New Survey Says Prayer Doesn't Work
There will always be doubters as to what God will do for those that trust in Him. How can you measure the faith of someone in a survey? To try and measure faith would be to doubt God's Word, which says, "without faith, it is impossible to please Him". (Hebrews 11:6). Praying for oneself has been shown in many studies to be effective. At the beginning of the article, they say that the survey shows that "the health effects of prayer seems to suggest it will make it worse". Which way will they have it: it either works, or doesn't work. I believe it's all up to the person with faith; either they have it or they don't. They either believe what scripture says, or they don't. In other words, they believe or they don't. Jesus himself said, in Matthew 21:21 "Very I say unto you, if you have faith and doubt not" ------ and in Mark 11:23, "...but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. " As Dave Burchett said, you tell God your desires. And, you know HE is in control! And, He has a plan. Speaking of his and his wife's experience:It found that patients undergoing heart surgery did no better when they were prayed for by people unknown to them than those who received no prayers. But 59% of those patients who were told they were definitely being prayed for developed complications, compared with 52% of those who had been told it was just a possibility.
It would be impossible to measure PRAYER, or how it works, in a survey. I believe, if a person is a believer, and requests prayer, prays for themselves, or accepts the prayers of others, then prayer works! It encourages the person receiving prayer. I've heard it countless times - 'thanks for the prayers. They worked wonders.' But, there are those who doubt that they will receive anything through prayer, although they may ask for prayer. It's just the human mentality, or perhaps satan playing a number on the human mind.Dr Bethea and his colleague, Harvard professor Herbert Benson, emphasised that their investigations had been restricted to "intercessory prayer" by strangers - excluding prayer from family members and oneself.
I believe there will never be a "scientific" substantiation of the power of prayer to heal. That is because the reason for prayer is not telling God what to do and sitting back to wait for Him to jump through celestial hoops. I would, however, like to suggest that there is powerful anecdotal and experiential evidence of the power of prayer in our lives.
Linked at Conservative Cat
Random Thoughts Open Trackbacks
Stuck On Stupid
Technorati Tags: Prayer, Faith, God, Doubt