Does Prayer Heal?

"Study fails to show healing power of prayer"

I knew I wasn't going to be happy with the article just by reading the title.

Now, I don't think that just because you pray that the individual being prayed for will be healed or cured. God's Will comes first WAY before what we desire to be the end result. If God doesn't want healing, then it's not going to happen, folks!

Was this study of over 1,800 bypass patients created just to "set God up"? I don't know about God, but if I knew science geeks were setting me up to "test" me, I might just not cooperate according to their plans either. The audacity to assume God should perform for them and their study! "Our study was never intended to address the existence of God or the presence or absence of intelligent design in the universe" claims one of the authors....a reverand. I'm going to let that one rest right there.

They can do all the studies they want, but I personally know that people have been healed after prayer. I also know people who continued to get sicker and even pass on despite prayer. Did God only listen to certain people? NO. It's all God's Will who will be sick, get better, or pass away. Why can't people get that? Why do people think that they have the power to change what God has planned for each and every one of us?

So, "why bother to pray" I can hear some of you thinking. When you pray you are communicating with God. God desires your fellowship. He wants you to spend time with Him. Whether or not the one you pray for is healed or helped, you are healing yourself in a sense. You are renewing yourself mentally, and emotionally by bonding with God. Praying strengthens our dependence on God. Prayer helps us to remember that we can do nothing without Him because HE IS IN CONTROL.

Do you need to know whom you are praying for? NO. Despite what the study states - one possible limitation to their study was that those doing the special praying had no connection or acquaintance with the subjects of their prayer. God knows every hair on your head (And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered - Matt 10:30), and knows each and every person needing prayer whether you personally know them or not.

This statement gives me some hope: "Private or family prayer is widely believed to influence recovery from illness, and the results of this study do not challenge this belief," the report concluded.

The unbelieving world has SO much to learn....