Sat
Apr
01
2006
Prayer: Good for your (spiritual) health.
When I first saw this article in today’s Sydney Morning Herald (April 1st) I thought: April Fool! But it appears not.
The article discusses a study over six years to gauge the effect intercessory prayer for over 1800 heart surgery patients in the U.S. The conclusion was that prayer made no discernible difference to the recovery of the prayed-for patients, and they may have suffered more complications than the not-prayed-for group.
Of all the half-baked, foolish, poorly-thought-out, appallingly bad, unbiblical thinking! What an absolute waste of resources. They could have saved their money and just asked me (or any number of Christians with more than a vague understanding of the Bible) and got the answer that of course prayer wouldn’t make a difference in the sense that their study suggests.
Why?
Prayer is not a magic spell.
Prayer is not an incantation to be uttered over sick people, with the expectation of a cause/effect outcome.
Prayer is an expression of someone’s relationship with God. It’s a living, vital part of that relationship. It’s how we respond to who God is, to what He revealed of himself in Scripture and through the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives. It’s how we interact with God in our lives, how we express our joy in Him, our love for Him, our despair at the sin we see in our lives and the world around us. And it’s how we invoke His deeper involvement in our lives.
If I pray for a sick person (and I do) I pray for the whole person – and particularly for their spiritual life, their relationship with God, and not just their immediate sickness. I usually do pray for physical healing for them, but that is rarely the main thing that I pray for.
The whole premise of the study is that we can prove or disprove the efficacy of prayer by looking at the physical results represented by the patients recovery – or lack thereof. Whereas, the Bible urges us to pray for the really important things – like our relationship with God. From an eternal perspective, what’s more important: The successful or extra fast recovery from heart surgery that might buy us a few more years life here. Or the person’s eternal life with God in Jesus?
It certainly isn’t wrong to pray for physical healing, but so many seem to obsess about that as the most important outcome. Yet nowhere in the Bible are we promised a trouble-free, healthy existence in this life. You only need to look at the life of Paul in the New Testament to see that’s true for even the most diligent and passionate of God’s people.
If I’m praying for someone who is ill and whom I know is not a Christian, the first thing I pray for that their present condition will push them to want to get things sorted with God. Then I pray that God would give them the resources to get through whatever their health problems are, and that God would guide and direct the doctors and other staff who are treating them.
In the end of course, God answers those prayers in ways we are often not aware of and may not even understand – at least for now. But our failure to see or comprehend Gods answers doesn’t make them less real, less significant or less loving – in the long run.
The only thing this study proves is how little the people involved (including the Christian ministers) know about Biblical prayer. Very sad.
Comment
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Thanks Neil for pointing me to this! It is so true that we often have a very distorted view of what prayer is and should be, and what the results should be (ie we set the agenda and expect God as chairman to actually follow it!).
I have seen first-hand the effects that such distorted thinking can have on people, with at least one person close to me who suffers from a chronic illness very badly burned by this. It gives rise to a “if only I … more, then I would be healed” (insert prayed, trusted, tithed, ... among many others) mentality, or a loss of faith as prayer goes unanswered.
The key, that we all lose sight of too often, is that we need to be praying God’s will, and realise that that isn’t always ours. True healing will only happen in the next life, when our earthly bodies are destroyed and we are all made new along with all of creation.
I knew a beautiful lady who realised the truth of this, and even though that meant that she accepted her illness and that she would not see her daughter grow up, she was a strong Christian, and in fact was instrumental in directing me back to my faith at a time when none of it made any sense to me. She is certainly in heaven, but probably had no idea at the time that her life would point a lost uni student back to God! And when I think of that, I thank God that she was ill, else we never would have met!
— tammy · Apr 18, 10:42 AM · #
Christianity Today does a good job of addressing the issue of prayer for healing in an article they title “Random Acts of Healing?” here. They look at the issue of why some people are healed and not others.
— tammy · Apr 21, 07:39 AM · #
To me prayer is talking to God. I tell him all the time and I am ever aware of his presence although sometimes I feel like he just won’t listen I have to remember he knows and has plans for me.
I am a member of a website that I enjoy very much and we always pray for each other. I enjoy it plus it gets my mind off of me. Sometimes I feel as if making a sacrifice is not a problem. There are many things I give up because I know it is right to do. I know God would not have it any other way. I desire no praise from it but just desire to be obedient to the Lord. But it seems like God wants more sacrifice in areas that are harder for me. But it is more of me doing things out of not having a choice.
I pray so much sometimes and so long I fall asleep. I can’t remember everything although I try.
The things I want in my mind seem so simple and I know we don’t pray to God to get something but he does allow us to ask what we will. Now maybe I have been guilty of asking amiss but I try not to. But it is like eating cold cereal every morning because that is what was available. God shows you that he will give you a hot plate in the future. Now you really want this hot plate because it means you can afford it. So now you wait for your hot plate. You keep eating cold cereal. Well a year goes by and no hot plate. You get discouraged and even longer than a year goes by you wonder if you really wanted that hot plate of food. So doubt sets in because you still don’t have a hot plate of food. Now you keep praying for God to provide that hot plate of food. It still hasn’t happened.
I think it was Cornelius whose prayers came up as a memorial before God. God told me my prayers were coming up as a memorial before him but they have yet to be remembered. It seems like the blessing is getting closer then more setbacks come.
— EDEN · May 2, 08:55 PM · #
Eden, you are right in saying prayer is talking to God, and that underlines how prayer is part of the expression of our relationship with God.
But that also means that we don’t have to beat ourselves up if we aren’t praying like Paul all the time. It’s a relationship not an equation!
But tell me, how did God tell you that your “prayers were coming up as a memorial before him but they have yet to be remembered.”?
— NeilA · May 7, 05:27 AM · #
Hello Neil,
You asked “But tell me, how did God tell you that your “prayers were coming up as a memorial before him but they have yet to be remembered.”?
Early in 2005 I had been praying to God about so many different things. My main focused prayer was to get married. Due to me being a firm believer in prayer and really needing God to heed to my prayer I prayed constantly. I mean I prayed day and night. I turned the television off for 4 months and prayed. I would go to work and do my job and pray. I wrote out my prayers and prayed them again. I would sit in my prayer closet and pray all the time. I would ask God all the time and I was consistent. I do not see anything wrong because if something means a lot to you, you seek God about it. Well getting married has always been a huge desire of mine so I prayed for it. Through this praying God showed me a lot. The Lord and I got closer and then after several months my prayers began to change. But during my most devastating moments God used our Pastor to speak to me. He uses him quite a bit. Not sure if men feel the same way about marriage that women do but for me it was the most important at that time. Looking back now I didn’t know what God was working out in me. Well our Pastor preached about Cornelius and Peter one Sunday. The verse that stuck out to me and our pastor spoke on was Acts Chapter 10 verse 31 “31And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.”
Then our pastor plainly said that God has heard our prayers and at the right time they would come up before him. So I went home and read the chapter again. In Acts chapter 10 vs 2 the bible says “A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.” Cornelius had the right heart and was a good person but needed to know who Jesus was he needed salvation so in the latter part of verse 4 it says “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.”
Like another woman who testified on a website that she had the same problem I had. She had made marriage her ultimate goal and she said that if she accomplished that goal what else would she have to live for? I have learned so much since then and my prayers are not about me and what I want (that much LOL).
— EDEN · May 24, 09:48 PM · #
Hi Eden,
Thanks for that response. It’s very encouraging to hear how God is working in your life. It’s wonderful how he moulds us (often slowly!) into being the people He wants us to be.
But I’m not sure I understand how Acts 10:31 applies to your situation. There is no doubt that we have many places in Scripture where God promises to hear the prayers of people. No argument there at all, and I’m sure God has heard your prayers and is working in you as a response.
But I think it’s a little tricky to take a verse like Acts 10:31 and apply it to our situation. As always, it’s very important to take Bible verses in context, and in this case there is some very unusual and specific things going on here in Acts 10.
God is working in a very specific and one-off manner as part of His great work to take the gospel to the gentiles.
This not the sort of thing we should expect to see happening all the time. They are events very specific to a time and place in God’s plan.
So we can certainly say “God hears our prayers and answers them”, but I’m not sure that Acts 10:31 applies to us, here and now.
The sentiment is right (‘God hears prayers’) but the context isn’t.
Do get what I am driving at?
Please don’t take this as an attack on you or your Pastor – but I think it’s so important that we handle God’s Word in a way that does justice to it and it’s context.
— NeilA · May 25, 06:40 AM · #
Yes I do agree that we must take scripture in context. Practicing that is what I try to do. On this particular day and time my prayers and concerns were what was on my mind. Now the preacher was talking about salvation and it being given to the Gentiles. I love reading how God prepared Peter and Cornelius. Maybe I didn’t phrase it correctly. What I am saying is the focus or the reminder for me at that time was about my prayer and that God heard me and in his time he would grant my request. In no way did I mean to misuse the context as to relating directly to my situation. I apologize if it came off that way.
— EDEN · May 26, 06:49 AM · #
Thanks for taking the time to reply to that Eden.
I can see now much better what you were saying, and no need to apologise! Put it down to a limitation of the medium!
— NeilA · May 26, 06:11 PM · #
Well I wanted to talk to you a moment about exercising faith in prayer. When I go to the Lord and I talk to him about everything on my mind I believe he hears me. Now when it comes to faith I struggle daily. As a Christian I know God is real but I have trouble accepting his answers to my questions. He tells me to wait all the time. But then he reminds me that he hasn’t forgotten. God knows me and he knows I am always anxious. Although I shouldn’t be like that. Sometimes in the mind and heart that is desperately wanting whatever you can’t hear God’s voice through the clutter of “emotions”. How can I get back to clearly hearing God and not hearing my feelings? I hope I am not sounding contradicting. It is just this is what I deal with as I am growing.
— EDEN · May 27, 01:52 AM · #
When you speak of ‘faith’ Eden, I assume you mean something like ‘trust’.
I guess one of the hardest things about our relationship with God is that we so often seem to be at loggerheads with Him over lots of issues!
At the risk sounding trite, the way for any of us to receive positive answers to our prayers is to ask for the things God’s wants us to have!
What are those things? The stuff that God Word speaks of all the time. Paul often speaks very helpfully about this kind of stuff. Also, James 4:1-10 (there’s a talk about that on this site and a different one on my church site). We get frustrated and anxious when our prayers are not answered in the way we want. But prayer isn’t really about all that. Remember it’s relational. You don’t spend all your conversations with a friend asking him/her for things, and neither should we do that to God – except where we are asking for things that God is freely offering – like the qualities that develop a godly life in us.
Hearing God happens primarily through his word (the Bible). That helps us keep on track, and not let our emotions and feeling drive us.
— NeilA · May 29, 07:22 AM · #
When Paul describe how he saw things too wonderful when he was caught up..was that a vision? Was he seeing things in heaven?
— EDEN · May 31, 02:56 AM · #
If you mean in 2 Corinthians 12:3ff Eden, then yes, I think that was the case. In that context, Paul is pointing out to his original readers how, despite all the wonderful things God has done in and through him, he deliberately plays all that down, and he says God gave him a physical affliction to help keep him rooted in the reality of this life!
And one of the purposes of that is that people would not be impressed by Paul the person, but would be focussed on the gospel that he brought. Hence v9: ”...he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for kmy power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me”.
There’s more to that, of course, and I happen to be preaching in that passage next Sunday, so stay tuned, if it interests you.
— NeilA · May 31, 04:24 AM · #
Definitely interested. I was listening a while ago to you sermon under matters of the heart. Being single….well I have decided that since faith pleases God…I will have faith.
— EDEN · May 31, 04:41 AM · #
Neil,
As I realize that faith pleases God how can I find out from God if he is pleased with me at all. Do I just look at my life through self examination to find out or do I simply pray for it? Which way is better? God knows I want to know what he thinks of me. But what is the best way to present this question for me to know?
— EDEN · Jun 14, 03:28 AM · #
Hi Eden,
Everything we need to know about living a life pleasing to God is found in the Bible. (2 Tim 3:16-17).
I know that sounds a little trite, but there it is!
As I know you know, the Christian life is not a life of rules and regulations, it’s a living relationship with a living God. And as we spend time in His Word, He speaks to us, and shows us how we should live.
We will fail (miserably!), but we know that in Christ, we are forgiven those failures and we can get back, dust ourselves off and get back on the bike (so to speak).
I will often avoid the word ‘faith’ in my talks, because I think it has assumed some unhelpful meanings over the years (many people seem to take it as meaning ‘blind faith’). I think in many cases, biblically speaking, we can use the word ‘trust’ in it’s place.
So to have faith in God, is to trust Him to be who He is, keeping His promises to us in Christ. We can’t trust our feelings to judge whether we are pleasing God or not, because our feeling go up and down for all sorts of reasons. So we come back to the solid, unchanging foundation of God’s Word to us in the Bible.
That’s a long-winded way of saying: make spending time in the Bible a normal part of your life (as I’m sure you do!), praying for the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what He wants you to understand from the Word, and asking for the strength and grace to live it out!
Even that intention is pleasing to God!
— NeilA · Jun 14, 05:12 AM · #
Maybe I am getting ridiculous again but when I read I tend to search for answers to my questions about (me) and my life.
For example one of my prayers was to know who in the bible was I similar to as far as relating my life to? I got the answer.
So I have been stuck on wanting to know everything for a while.
— EDEN · Jun 14, 05:29 AM · #