Health news about intercessory prayer

[devoted_to_Mary]

“Intercessory prayer does not heal the sick”, I was upset to discover our local newpaper ran this story as well.

time.blogs.com/daily_rx/2006/03/thanks_but_dont.html

Jackie

 

[Gerry_Hunter]

What we may have here is a confusion between healing and cure.

Prayer CAN lead to a cure, but ALWAYS helps healing. It may well please God to grant remission from a disease or injury in response to prayer, but as for healing, that has effects that go past death. A person afflicted with an illness may die, but be healed, and reap the benefits of that healing after death.

Remember the priority Jesus himself revealed. First, he pronounced that the afflicted man’s sins were forgiven him. Then, as a sign to the crowds, so that they might believe, he cured him of his affliction, having first performed the greater work, and given the greater gift. Secular studies concentrate on cure, and ignore healing, unlike our Lord.

Blessings,

Gerry

 

[LilyM]

Gerry Hunter:

What we may have here is a confusion between healing and cure.

Prayer CAN lead to a cure, but ALWAYS helps healing. It may well please God to grant remission from a disease or injury in response to prayer, but as for healing, that has effects that go past death. A person afflicted with an illness may die, but be healed, and reap the benefits of that healing after death.

Remember the priority Jesus himself revealed. First, he pronounced that the afflicted man’s sins were forgiven him. Then, as a sign to the crowds, so that they might believe, he cured him of his affliction, having first performed the greater work, and given the greater gift. Secular studies concentrate on cure, and ignore healing, unlike our Lord.

Blessings,

Gerry

beautifully said :clapping: :clapping:

 

[aimee]

Gerry Hunter:

What we may have here is a confusion between healing and cure.

Prayer CAN lead to a cure, but ALWAYS helps healing. It may well please God to grant remission from a disease or injury in response to prayer, but as for healing, that has effects that go past death. A person afflicted with an illness may die, but be healed, and reap the benefits of that healing after death.

Remember the priority Jesus himself revealed. First, he pronounced that the afflicted man’s sins were forgiven him. Then, as a sign to the crowds, so that they might believe, he cured him of his affliction, having first performed the greater work, and given the greater gift. Secular studies concentrate on cure, and ignore healing, unlike our Lord.

Blessings,

Gerry

good post

 

[exoflare]

I saw the article just now on Yahoo and came right over here to see if it had been posted yet. The first thing that popped into my head regarding the whole attitude of the “study” itself…

[Mt 4:2-3]
He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread."

and still relevant to the subject, later on in verse 7 Jesus says:

"Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test."

And isn’t faith supposed to be sort of a prerequisite of having your prayers answered in the first place? Even if it were possible to heal those patients physically through prayer (i.e., if that result was in conformity with God’s will) I wouldn’t be surprised at all that the attempts of those doctors turned out the way they did.

 

[Gerry_Hunter]

Studies like this one remind me of my Dad’s strident dislike for the misuse of tools. He was a master mechanic, and if you wanted to get him upset, you just had to use a screwdriver to open a paint can.

As a scientist myself, I get rather vexed by these attempts to use the scientific method to try and examine somethig which is was simply not designed to examine. Of course science can examine physiology, but the effect of prayer?

But hey, Harvard hardly ranks as a bastion of Christian thought.

Blessings,

Gerry

 

[Mijoy2]

Gerry Hunter:

Studies like this one remind me of my Dad’s strident dislike for the misuse of tools. He was a master mechanic, and if you wanted to get him upset, you just had to use a screwdriver to open a paint can.

Now you went and did it! I feel like a chump. I’m a champoin tool misuser and loser!

Good point. I don’t think devine work was meant to be measured by statistical science and control groups. The whole thing seems kinda silly.

By the way – how does one open a can of paint without a screwdriver?

 

[Gerry_Hunter]

Mijoy2:

By the way – how does one open a can of paint without a screwdriver?

There is such a thing as a paint can opener. You can see some pictures here

Blessings,

Gerry

 

[melbourne_guy]

‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God’ Matthew 4:7-8
Couldnt this study be seen as trying to test God.

 

[bapcathluth]

Faith is something that can’t be measured and studied. I know that when my mom was dying from cancer, knowing that there were other people praying for her was a great comfort to me, my mother and my family. True, she died anyway, but knowing that someone is praying for you is a true feeling of being loved and cared for.

Beliefnet has some excellent articles regarding the issue of intercessary prayer right now. I recommend going over there and reading some of them.

 

[Fitz]

I agree with bapcath, the prayers are very comforting and necessary for the loved ones of the person that is sick or dying. I sort of think we all know prayer helps. It leads us to God, and that is always helpful.

We also have to remember how often studies are wrong. There is a study that says children that go to day care do as well if not better than children raised by their own moms. Tjere are studies that say a fetus does not feel pain. There are studies that say children of divorce are fine, and the list goes on and on. I don’t believe too many studies really just because so often there is some bias built in to it.

 

[Riley259]

Fitz:

I agree with bapcath, the prayers are very comforting and necessary for the loved ones of the person that is sick or dying. I sort of think we all know prayer helps. It leads us to God, and that is always helpful.

We also have to remember how often studies are wrong. There is a study that says children that go to day care do as well if not better than children raised by their own moms. Tjere are studies that say a fetus does not feel pain. There are studies that say children of divorce are fine, and the list goes on and on. I don’t believe too many studies really just because so often there is some bias built in to it.

And there are some studies that suggest that kids raised by same-sex parents turn out just as fine in general as kids raised by opposite sex parents - we know that there are plenty of studies that say the opposite as well. Prior to this study on prayer, there had been a number of smaller studies that suggested the opposite, that is, that prayer does seem to have a beneficial effect on the sick. Either way, I agree with the poster that says that the whole thing is kind of silly - you don’t empirically try to measure the overarching effects of prayer because their too multi-varied and rich to capture with data.

 

[prodigal-sun]

‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God’ Matthew 4:7-8
Couldnt this study be seen as trying to test God.

This is what I was thinking also! It’s ridiculous to suggest this could produce any type of realistic conclusions.

Peace!

 

[cmt]

LINK

Media Report Prayer Doesn’t Work
from staff reports

But authors of a new study say that’s not at all what their research proves.

If you only read the headlines that have been generated in recent days, a new study to be published in the American Heart Journal indicates prayer doesn’t work.

But the study’s authors say the media haven’t exactly been reporting the totality of their findings. The research did find that certain prayers in certain situations do not yield a measurable effect, but the study’s author said science cannot measure the power of God in people’s lives.

“Prayer does not make God do something, let’s put it that way,” Dean Marek said, “or manipulate God into having our will be done.”

National Day of Prayer Vice Chairman Jim Weidmann said prayer, in fact, is all about God’s will.

“When people pray, what you must do is you must pray in the will of God,” he told Family News in Focus. "God also tells us, ‘You have not because you ask not. You receive not because you ask amiss.’ "

Researchers have no way of measuring God’s will regarding the subjects of this study.

“When you understand prayer from God’s perspective,” Weidmann said, “you understand the power of prayer even in healing situations.”