What exactly does praying for other people do?

Question

I saw a question that made me thing of this. I am agnostic asking christians. If your an athiest I know your answers and I am fine with it.
Lets say for example a kid is dying. You pray to god to help him right?
Would god not help him if you didn't?
Would god help him more depending on how many people pray? This just doesn't make any sense to me. If god is omnipotent/omnipresent shouldn't the need for the child to be healed be the only concern of a god.
What exactly is your prayer going to change or help? This will probably result in a follow up question(s), so keep looking for me.

Ok it seems some of you are not getting it. IF its GODS power and GODS will. How is some random stranger praying going to change the outcome? God does not follow your will right? If it helps more when more people do it then its Man's/woman's power not gods.

Answer 1

This confuses me a bit also. I thought people were supposed to pray for God's will to be done, not their own. So why pray for *anything to happen ... if it's God's will, it will happen, if it's not, it won't, ..... right?

Answer 2

Im native american, and a holy person ill tell you how I feel this question goes to the power of prayer. No matter what god it is, god is god. Now by praying to help others it is the showing of compassion for others, and we are passing a little of our energy on to them, we do not know fully understand how the mind works and Im not saying that you are able to heal the sick by some ability to heal but maybe a little help from all who pray would give a little piece of ourselves to that sick person and in return maybe that help will be passed on to us if we need it, it is all based upon hope and faith.

Answer 3

Read Luke 18:1-8, The story of the unrighteous judge.

1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:
3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.
4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;
5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.
6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.
7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Here, we see a widow who continually goes before the judge to plead her case. The bible says we ought to always pray. Even Jesus prayed. It is a believers connection in a personal relationship with the all-poweful God of the universe. For an unbeliever however, any prayer besides a prayer of repentance is useless.

Answer 4

Hmmm...that's a tough question to answer.

I'd say that it has to do with faith in prayer and the belief that praying for someone other than yourself or your own needs will make a difference in some way.

I guess it's like doing onto others as you would want them to do to you.

I'm not a strictly religious person, but this is what I think prayer does. Hope that helps!

Answer 5

Ok first of all Christians aren't the only people who use prayer.
Second of all some people think prayer is real and others don't so I can only tell you my beliefs.
I believe prayer is a practice and a discipline. As you practice you grow in power. More of your prayers are "answered."
The key is believing that what you are praying for is already done.
If you are experienced in prayer you can get amazing results and sometimes even if you aren't experienced.
Nobody gets their prayers answered every single time and the world doesn't always yield to prayer.

Answer 6

Sometimes life hits you something and you cannot even respond, so when that happens you ask others to pray.
There is power when you pray for a person you do not even know, or a situation you are not involved in.
God said in that wherever two or three are gathered in His name HE will be there in their midst.
God knows what we need, but HE wants us to realize that we need Him to do it, and verbalize that in prayer.

Answer 7

God wants us to pray not because He needs to be told what to do but because He wants to hear from us. What He seeks in our prayers is our faith in Him, and our compassion toward others. God will take care of those He loves even if nobody prays for them. So why do it? God wants to hear how much we love them too.

Answer 8

This isn't the answer you're looking for, but someone has made an experiment to answer this. There are sick people and others were asked to pray for him in front of the sick person. Generally they got better.

There was no discernable difference however with people who did not know someone was praying for them.

Answer 9

Prayer changes things..it can even change the mind of God. Prayer is a powerful weapon, just as the bible is.

Answer 10

Prayer changes things. Not all things, but it is powerful.