Efficay of Prayer

[escapefate]

It seems most research shows that Prayer has no measurable benefit. I wondered how this could be possible and the conclusion i reached was that

Mathew 5:45

That you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

So people that are bad and have no one praying for them are still blessed by God. But if this is the case what purpose is our Prayer request? If God is going to heal our not heal our sick loved ones based on his own decision, why do we bother to ask? Can we truly petition God?

There seems to be an atheist movement that prayer does nothing. And they are ridiculing prayer saying, "Two working hands accomplish more than an army of closed praying hands" While I want to believe in the POWER of prayer it seems that there isn't outstanding evidence that Christians live healthier lives or longer lives or better lives or have better placement in the world.

An alternative idea is that prayer does work but we are some how disconnected and our prayer is not heard. I lost a family member years ago that was sick. He was prayer for and I had pure faith he would be healed and his healing would be a great testament to God's power and glory. He died. Ever since then I thought my prayer didn't matter if it wasn't part of God's plan. So now I feel like I can only pray for God's will and that feels very vague, I can never understand God's mind or plans. I feel like I cannot ask for a specific healing of sick loved ones because it may or may not be God's plan to heal them, but we are also told Ask and we shall receive, and that we can move mountains with our faith. This all seems very circumstantial, there seems to be stipulations.

 

[farouk]

In Matthew 6, the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray: 'Thy will be done'.

Honestly, the supposed insights of atheists to subjects such as prayer don't interest me.

The believer may know that because the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus are the central themes of the Bible, and God does not contradict or work against His own revealed Word, then s/he can pray in confidence for the will of God to be done. (I hope this brief comment is helpful.)

 

[Speculative]

I agree with farouk regarding the atheist view on prayer. Their studies are along the lines of someone being prayed for who has cancer. If they are not healed, they say that prayer doesn't work, but they have no clue as to the comfort that prayer brings to both the petitioners and the prayed for, and how God comes to comfort the person as they transition from this world to the next, and the ultimate fact that when a believer dies, they will ultimately end up in heaven with the Savior, and be healed anyway

Oh, and another thing. They don't take into account God's timing. They think He will fit into the short time tables of their scientific studies, but that is rarely the case. How many times have you heard of someone praying for a relative to come to Christ, and the prayer was answered 20, 30, 40 or more years later? I was once in need of a mentor. I prayed for 8 years before God answered this prayer. I doubt too many scientific studies would've wanted to wait around this long to see if the prayer was answered.