The Power of Prayer?

since we're on the religion kick....


http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/comparison-Frequency+of+Receiving+Answers+to+Prayers.pdf

i found this one particularly enlightening.

roughly one in three people from evangelical or historically black churches and mormons, jehovahs witnesses, and muslims say god answers their prays ONCE A WEEK.


what the heck are they praying for?---a nice bm in the morning?

if its that frequent ive gotta think its the power of positive thinking.

ps. heck of a website, btw. lot of religious demographic data.

 

If there was power to prayer, I think you'd find empirical evidence that people who pray have better health and prosperity than the non-praying populace. I don't know if anyone has done a study like this, but I'd suppose that the two sample groups would end up at about the same average.

Also, it seems that the power of prayer is never really overt, but always very subtle. That's why, for example, healing from internal sickness is often attributed to prayer, but why have you never seen physical ailments such as amputees get healed?

If I was a believer, I think I'd pray more as a way to communicate my love to my deity, not to submit requests for favors. If gods plan is gods plan, then I don't think he'd modify it because you ask him to.

 

Depends on what you categorize as an answer to prayer. When we ask questions of anyone in general, sometimes we get answers we don't like. Never the less, we still got an answer. So it really depends on what someone considers to be an answer in my opinion.

 

Amputations are performed more often then not to prevent further injury. It is in itself a method of healing so therefore some may attribute prayer to the result.

 

I've found lots of comfort and solace in prayer over my lifetime.

One case in point: Right before going in for knee surgery on Valentine's Day in 1986, my Baptist preacher showed up at the hospital at 6 a.m. (40 miles from his church) to pray with me before my surgery.

I was scared to death of needles and hospitals, but immediately after praying with him, I felt a calm like I'd never felt before. Please note that I went on to re-injure the same knee 8 months after surgery and had an "athletic career" ending injury that time. So, God didn't change his plan because I asked him to, but He did give me peace.

I needed that peace to accept the changes I had to make to my lifestyle, in order to deal with my new reality of not having an ACL in my left knee. And it wasn't until two years ago that I could exercise anymore because arthritis had set in so badly--but I had surgery again, prayed for success and less pain, and I was granted those things. Of course, part of the success is that I rehabbed the heck out of my knee and continue to work out three-four times a week.

But God and prayer has helped me with my disability. I truly believe that.

 

You'll never find empirical evidence that supports the power of faith in Christ. That is the core difference between agnostics and believers.

What does it hurt to believe? It doesn't cost anything, you don't have to travel to find it. You just have to open your heart. We may be wrong for all we know but that's why its called Faith. I'd rather take the chance in believing in God and being wrong in the end than not believing in God and being wrong in the end.

There are no stats or scientific evidence in Christianity. We take the word of the men and women who walked with Jesus. They've been dead for thousands of years. Again its Faith.

 

I was putting things in elementary terms for people who have not opened their eyes yet.

And btw, God does want you to ask for things. He wants to grant us favor and will. But you have to ask.