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Have you ever been so sick that you just closed your eyes and started to pray? If so, you’re not alone. According to a University of Rochester study, as many as 85 percent of people pray in addition to receiving treatment. It’s not uncommon to see priests visiting hospitals or congregations laying hands on the sick, but can prayer really restore your good health?
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Prayer Ministers to Spiritual Aspects of a Patient’s Life
- From Dr Bob Paeglow
By Dr. Bob Paeglow - Physician
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God is the healer.
.
Prayer is good if is done in the right spirit and attitude. We need prayer for our own good and that of others.
But Healing comes from the Lord our God not from prayer by itself. The Lord is the Healer. He responds to the Faith of those who Pray rightly, and who are Just in their doings.
In the Biblical narrative and in particular the Gospels and the book of Acts. Some of the Healings happened without the mention of a prayer being previously offered. However one element was always present and that was Faith in God (Faithless people need not apply). But those who had Faith did receive healing or were participants in the healings.
Jesus himself told a woman that her Faith had heal her (not her prayers). The healings in the narrative had the purpose of demonstrating who Jesus was, the promised Messiah. His Power and Authority as such.
God knows what we need before we ask, prayer is for own good and that of others. But by and of itself prayer is not what heals but the answer from God to the prayer. God will answer to the Faith, and for the benefit of the believer's Faith and of other's Faith. But again faithless people need not apply.
- Salero21
August 9, 2009 8:12PM
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The answer isn't always yes....
I do believe in the power of prayer . I believe God answers sincere prayers, but it isn't always the answer we want. Sometimes it's no. When my Father had lung cancer , we pleaded with God to help him recover, and against all odds he did. He had another good five years that he enjoyed. He succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2006, and no less prayers were said. This time the answer was no, but I believe God gave us that extra 5 years with him out of mercy for our sorrow before bringing him home. We should remember that God sees the whole picture, while we only see a small part. The next time you are forced to tell your child "no", because you know what is best for him or her, think of our Father in heaven, who knows what is best for us.
- chief45
August 31, 2009 8:11PM
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Re: The answer isn't always yes.....
That's nonsense! And it's deeply offensive to everyone who has prayed for more time and didn't get it. Also, it's not clear that giving someone with cancer more time is even a good thing if they're suffering. Praying is done with exactly the same motives and has exactly the same result as doing a rain dance. Rather than seeing someone continue to die as disconfirming evidence for the notion that god answers prayers, you rationalize that god is just giving a different answer. So what could convince you that prayers aren't answered? When it rains, the rain god has answered your prayer ! When it doesn't, well, the rain god has his reasons. Maybe he's punishing us or trying to teach us a lesson.
Did God give your father cancer in the first place? Did he deserve that? How many people have prayed and pleaded for the pain to stop? How many people were mechanically slaughtered in the holocaust? How many people were tortured and died of the plague? How many babies have been burned alive in fires? How many mothers had their babies torn from their arms in raging floodwaters? How many innocent people did the church burn alive? What about those people in the WTC towers on September 11 who chose to jump to their deaths rather than burning? I wonder how they would feel about this. You're in the position of justifying all of this senseless suffering and death. I can't. I just can't. You can say that sin answers the issue of man-caused evil, but natural disasters are something else entirely. I've made my point. Prayer is obviously a false cause fallacy, just like the rain dance.
- Matt2h
September 27, 2009 12:08AM
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Yes prayer is beneficial.
God heals through it.
- truehappiness
September 30, 2009 10:55AM
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Yes pray heals
God is the healer. He healed my body,he heal my mind.The Lord Jesus whats to heal you!He's there for you!
- countryboy
October 4, 2009 7:24PM
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