The Power of Prayer


"And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well..." James 5:15 NIV

Last week, a CNN article pointed to a study of whether prayer had any effect on heart patients. The conclusion was that prayer had no effect, except that patients who knew they were being prayed for fared slightly worse than patients not prayed for and patients who were being prayed for without knowing it.

As someone trained in science and as a Christian, I have a few thoughts about this so-called study.

One of the questions I have about this study, right off is: how did the investigators know that the control group were not being prayed for? How could anyone insure such a thing? Because one small group I'm in regularly prays for friends and loved ones of members of the group, and those being prayed for might or might not know that such prayer was being offered on their behalf. I'd like to hope and believe that more people in this country and around the world have people who pray for them than you might imagine. It's just not something an investigator would be able to find out about.

Second: the Bible is clear that a prayer for the sick must be offered in faith (James 5:15). I hardly think that anyone who lends himself to such a study by participating in such a prayer is really offering a prayer in faith. Rather, it's the sort of arrogance of inquiry that God has gone on record in the over and over again as hating and punishing. See Luke 1:18-20 for one example.

If you believe in God who answers prayer, as I do, you know that that God prizes faith in Himself. The spirit of scientific inquiry is good for getting at the truth of how the physical universe works, but it has long been clear to me that it is emphatically not good at getting at spiritual truth.

So, I won't be swayed to disbelief by the results of this wrong-headed study, and I will go on praying for friends and loved ones who need it anyway. I can tell stories of answers to prayer that seem nothing short of miraculous.

Finally, let me say that the real purpose of prayer is not to ask God for things or healing or anything else. The real purpose is to get in touch with God and in tune with His will. And anyone who approaches prayer on that basis will certainly be answered, sometimes even in the petitions he brings.

Every prayer is answered. Sometimes the answer is "Yes". Sometimes the answer is "No." And sometimes the answer is "Wait." But all are answered.

Posted: Wed - April 5, 2006 at 08:55 PM        

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