Washington Post Article on Prayer

[WyEm]

The Washington Post ran story last Friday about a "scientific" study that found prayer to be ineffective. "Oh, ye of little faith"

"Prayer Doesn't Aid Recovery, Study Finds" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/30/AR2006033000902.html)

[jokester]

What people don't realize is that just because you pray for something doesn't mean that it's gonna happen the way you want it to. Does prayer still work today: ABSOLUTELY!!!!!! But God has a plan for everything, and it's not always YOUR plan. He might have a totally different way of bringing things about than what we pray for.

Classic example: We had a close family friend who was dying from kidney failure. She was on the transplant list, but was way down at the bottom. She was a christian and she always witnessed to her family about her love of God. Of course, the family wondered why the church's and friend's prayers weren't working and why she wasn't getting better or getting a transplant. Right up until her death, she trusted God and always said that he had a plan and a reason why she had to go through this. After her death, 10 members of her immediate family came to Christ!! It wasn't because of their fear of death...it was because she was a silent witness to them during her times of trouble. She would always stay upbeat and have a positive outlook, despite the grim circumstances. Her family members that got saved after her death said that if they hadn't seen her go through all that she did, and still have the attitude that she had because of her faith in God, that they never would have came to Christ!

So our prayers for her healing and for her transplant were not answered, because God had a plan to bring her family to know him through her death. Yes, it's not the outcome that we would hope for, but God works in mysterious ways!

Just remember...it's in HIS time, not ours :angel:

-jokester

[rimrock]

I just last weekend had this conversation with a pastor friend about healing. I spoke to him about my struggles with for example in James it addresses the Christian’s responsibility to call on the church elders to come and pray for them when they take ill. The Bible speaks about the prayers of a righteous man being powerful, yet by far so many of the people who are ill remain that way, many still die.

“What does James mean to you?” I honestly asked. I liked his words. He simply put it as, “when a baseball player swings the bat by far the majority of the time he will not get a hit, BUT he will never get a hit if he never steps to the plate. God only asks for us to walk to the plate and to swing the bat, not to get a hit.” So I then asked, “what about those who don’t get well and even die?” He said, “I’d bury them.”

I remembered then back in school a professor said to me, “There is no power of prayer, there is only power of God.” Years later maybe I’ll eventually learn, God is simply God and leave it at that. You never know I might learn that lesson yet.