The power of prayer

[Alan Burns]

I recall these events as they happened without exaggeration or fabrication.

It was Tuesday July 26th.  My wife, daughter and I were preparing to embark on a two week holiday in Skiathos, Greece.  We were to be picked up at 1:30am in a taxi to travel to Manchester airport for an early morning flight.

A few days before, I had started to experience some pain when passing urine.  It had happened before, but passed off in a day or two, but this time it did not pass off.  It was getting more painful, more urgent and more frequent.  At 11pm I started passing blood.  I had to face the reality that I was in no condition to travel and would have to cancel the holiday and seek urgent medical attention.  Then ...

Words come into my head saying "Just lie down and pray the Rosary".  I have nothing to lose, so I lay on the bed and start silently reciting the sorrowful mysteries of the Holy Rosary.  As I pray, all the pain and discomfort drift away and I am covered with a blanket of reassurance telling me that all will be well.  As I start on the glorious mysteries, I am so comfortable that I have to make an effort to keep awake.  While I am praying, my wife joins me for a lie down, oblivious of the drama I have experienced.  On finishing the Glorious mysteries, I drift off to a peaceful sleep.  I wake up at 1am in time to prepare for the taxi.  I take the two and a half hour taxi ride to Manchester without a single toilet stop.  Just two hours earlier I had been weeing blood every five minutes.  During the three and a half hour flight I make just one toilet trip, free from pain and blood and I look forward to what turns out to be a wonderful holiday.

So I humbly give thanks and praise to God for this amazing answer to prayer.

People will inevitably ask the question : "Why does God answer my prayers and not other people's?"  All I can say is that whenever I put my faith and trust in God, prayers do get answered.  I am convinced that faith is the key which unlocks the power of prayer.

postscript:  When we arrived in Greece I told my wife of the drama I experienced.  She was shocked and amazed, and made me promise to see a doctor when we returned home.  The doctor confirmed that I had a urinary tract infection, and I was given a course of antibiotics to clear it up, but she offered no explanation for the two week respite which allowed me to enjoy our holiday.

[BeRational]

Why did you bother with medical help?

[floo]

My husband gets urinary tract infections. He will have break from one, then two or three weeks later it will start again. He doesn't like to have too many antibiotics, so doesn't always seek treatment unless it is really bad.

This made me giggle.


The Power of Prayer

In a small Midwestern conservative town, a business owner began to construct a building for a new bar. The local church started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayers.

Work progressed, however, right up until the week before opening, when a lightning strike hit the bar and it burned to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, until the bar owner sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means.

In its reply to the court, the church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the building's demise.

As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork at the hearing and commented, "I don't know how I'm going to decide this, but as it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer, and an entire church congregation that doesn't!"
 

[Alan Burns]

Why did you bother with medical help?

I do what my wife tells me 

[Alan Burns]

This made me giggle. ....

It made me smile too 

[BeRational]

I do what my wife tells me 

Do you understand that this is laughable as any sort of evidence for a god intervening in your problems?

I assume this is some sort of joke?

[Sebastian Toe]

People will inevitably ask the question : "Why does God answer my prayers and not other people's?"  All I can say is that whenever I put my faith and trust in God, prayers do get answered. 

Is there any time when you don't put your faith and trust in God?

[floo]

I do what my wife tells me 

As any obedient husband should!

BTW did your friend Becky have her brain scan?

[torridon]

People will inevitably ask the question : "Why does God answer my prayers and not other people's?"  All I can say is that whenever I put my faith and trust in God, prayers do get answered.  I am convinced that faith is the key which unlocks the power of prayer.

Any why is it that God has not answered your prayers to supply a cure for bone cancer or Parkinsons disease or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease ?

Is it

1/ that you do not care enough about these conditions to pray about them in the first place, or,
2/ that God does not care enough about these conditions to consider it a worthy use of his interventionist powers ?

Whaddya think ?

[SusanDoris]

e one

Why did you bother with medical help?

Nice one!

Reading that OP was like wading through treacle.

P.S. Floo, your story made me laugh too!

[Alan Burns]

Any why is it that God has not answered your prayers to supply a cure for bone cancer or Parkinsons disease or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease ?

Is it

1/ that you do not care enough about these conditions to pray about them in the first place, or,
2/ that God does not care enough about these conditions to consider it a worthy use of his interventionist powers ?

Whaddya think ?

My personal prayers get answered in a very personal way.

Of course I pray for solutions to big global problems, but these appear to require more than just my personal prayer.  If more people prayed with faith I am sure more answers would come.  I recall some time ago that there was a big call from our churches to pray for the conversion of Russia.   The Christian faith in Russia is no longer persecuted by government forces, and Leningrad has been renamed back to St Petersburg.

[ProfessorDavey]

My personal prayers get answered in a very personal way.

And how can you be sure that you wouldn't have had exactly the same respite in urinary symptoms had you not prayed - answer, you can't.

[BeRational]

My personal prayers get answered in a very personal way.

Of course I pray for solutions to big global problems, but these appear to require more than just my personal prayer.  If more people prayed with faith I am sure more answers would come.  I recall some time ago that there was a big call from our churches to pray for the conversion of Russia.   The Christian faith in Russia is no longer persecuted by government forces, and Leningrad has been renamed back to St Petersburg.

This is just delusional thinking.

Source vocabulary.com

Delusional comes from a Latin word meaning "deceiving." So delusional thinking is kind of like deceiving yourself by believing outrageous things. Delusional thoughts are often a sign of mental illness, but the word can also be used more loosely to describe behavior that is just not realistic.

[Nearly Sane]

My personal prayers get answered in a very personal way.

Of course I pray for solutions to big global problems, but these appear to require more than just my personal prayer.  If more people prayed with faith I am sure more answers would come.  I recall some time ago that there was a big call from our churches to pray for the conversion of Russia.   The Christian faith in Russia is no longer persecuted by government forces, and Leningrad has been renamed back to St Petersburg.

So because not enough people pray for it your god chooses to let children die in pain - what a dick of a god!

[torridon]

My personal prayers get answered in a very personal way.

Of course I pray for solutions to big global problems, but these appear to require more than just my personal prayer.  If more people prayed with faith I am sure more answers would come.  I recall some time ago that there was a big call from our churches to pray for the conversion of Russia.   The Christian faith in Russia is no longer persecuted by government forces, and Leningrad has been renamed back to St Petersburg.

Is it like some sort of critical mass needs to be achieved then, rather like the government agreeing to act on petitions that attract a minimum number of signatures ?

[ProfessorDavey]

If more people prayed with faith I am sure more answers would come.

I have no doubt that vast numbers of people pray for world peace, or for a cure for cancer etc on very regular occasions. How come that isn't sufficient for god to respond - and if it isn't sufficient, how many people are needed, is there a certain threshold, like there is on the official government petitions.

[ProfessorDavey]

Is it like some sort of critical mass needs to be achieved then, rather like the government agreeing to act on petitions that attract a minimum number of signatures ?

Blimey - we seem to have written almost exactly the same post at the same time, without knowledge of the other persons post.

That is surely more than coincidence - must clearly be evidence for the mysterious workings of god

[Sebastian Toe]

My personal prayers get answered in a very personal way.

Of course I pray for solutions to big global problems, but these appear to require more than just my personal prayer.  If more people prayed with faith I am sure more answers would come.  I recall some time ago that there was a big call from our churches to pray for the conversion of Russia.   The Christian faith in Russia is no longer persecuted by government forces,

Are you sure?
https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2016/07/4555259/
http://m.christianpost.com/news/christians-russia-fear-kgb-style-crackdowns-putin-signs-law-banning-evangelism-166318/

[Maeght]

And how can you be sure that you wouldn't have had exactly the same respite in urinary symptoms had you not prayed - answer, you can't.

That's the key question. Things happen and if you believe in God and the power of prayer than you assign that as the reason, if you don't believe in those things then you just accept that things happen. If you pray and the thing doesn't happen then you make up a reason why God hasn't answered that one.

[Brownie]

I have no doubt that vast numbers of people pray for world peace, or for a cure for cancer etc on very regular occasions. How come that isn't sufficient for god to respond - and if it isn't sufficient, how many people are needed, is there a certain threshold, like there is on the official government petitions.

Cancer is not the killer it used to be, there have been tremendous breakthroughs even in my lifetime and people who have had cancer recover, or are in long term remission, and live a normal life span.  There have also been great advances in the treatment and, sometimes, cure of other diseases.  If we think about it, a lot of us might have died in infancy of things like respiratory infections had we been born a few years earlier.

Regarding peace, it is people who cause wars and it seems to me that they always will.   Lots of us on here will remember the Vietnam war which seemed to go on forever.  When it was eventually over I naively thought the USA would not waste lives so needlessly in such a hurry again.  How wrong I was.

Now, neither of the above may have anything to do with prayer but I can't see how it hurts.  I've had some incidences in my life that I honestly believe were helped, or solved, by prayer but I can't prove it so I don't make a big thing out of it.  We never can prove it!

[ProfessorDavey]

I do what my wife tells me 

Cop out answer.

You say you had some increasingly bad symptoms for a few days before you went on holiday - they then stopped entirely (is that right) and you were completely symptom free for 2 whole weeks (again is that correct). That is certainly what you implied.

If so why would you go to the doctor about something which had resolved itself, certainly in terms of symptoms and hadn't been giving you any problem for weeks.

[ProfessorDavey]

Cancer is not the killer it used to be, there have been tremendous breakthroughs even in my lifetime and people who have had cancer recover, or are in long term remission, and live a normal life span.  There have also been great advances in the treatment and, sometimes, cure of other diseases.  If we think about it, a lot of us might have died in infancy of things like respiratory infections had we been born a few years earlier.

Regarding peace, it is people who cause wars and it seems to me that they always will.   Lots of us on here will remember the Vietnam war which seemed to go on forever.  When it was eventually over I naively thought the USA would not waste lives so needlessly in such a hurry again.  How wrong I was.

But if god actually answered prayers in the manner that Alan seems to imply why wouldn't god have acted on the prayers for world peace or a cure for cancer.

Now, neither of the above may have anything to do with prayer but I can't see how it hurts.  I've had some incidences in my life that I honestly believe were helped, or solved, by prayer but I can't prove it so I don't make a big thing out of it.  We never can prove it!

In a way I am with you there. If someone does something (provided it does affect anyone else) and that helps them in a psychological manner to deal with things then that's fine, whether that thing might be prayer, meditation, spending time with friends/family or listening to music.

But the issue for me is when people try to link something that happened directly to that prayer etc, when there is no evidence for a causal relationship. More so when they claim that unproven cause and effect is driven by a supernatural middle man called god.

[Nearly Sane]

Are you sure?
https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2016/07/4555259/
http://m.christianpost.com/news/christians-russia-fear-kgb-style-crackdowns-putin-signs-law-banning-evangelism-166318/

 A couple on the Isle of Man who had been part of the praying watched Game of Thrones the week before and forgot about praying for Russia, so God decided they needed a little lesson

[Brownie]

Alan seems to think all is hunky dory Christian-wise in the ex-Soviet Union but that is far from true.   The state wants to control the established church.  It was always so, even before 1917.  Communism has not been the only tyrannical force in Russia, there is something about the place that seems to foster totalitarianism.  Christians (& presumably people of other religious beliefs), latched on to Communism as the Big Thing to be got rid of and I'm sure they were right but other things can be just as bad.

Prof, I don't proselytise about faith and prayer, it is a personal thing.   You'll have to ask Alan why God didn't or doesn't intervene in some circumstances, it's not a question I have ever asked because I accept that life is a mixture of good and bad.  That includes my own life.  I  believe there will never be world peace - though we could learn not to get into strife which would make war less common!   There will always be illnesses.  That's life.  I'm grateful for small mercies and don't look to blame anyone if situations seem unfair.

[ProfessorDavey]

Prof, I don't proselytise about faith and prayer, it is a personal thing.

Good

You'll have to ask Alan why God didn't or doesn't intervene in some circumstances,

I and others have and he hasn't really answered. The closest he has come it to claim that perhaps god doesn't intervene if the quantum of prayer doesn't reach some kind of threshold.  So apparently his god is responding when one person prays (him) about a matter (a urinary tract infection that might prevent him from going on holiday), which let's face it is a pretty trivial matter in the great scheme of things. Yet fails to intervene when countless people are praying for world peace or a cure for cancer. Very strange god if that's his attitude.