Praying and it's benefits: Has it ever worked?

Question

I mean, lets take out the Quaran, Bible of other what out of this question, and answer it personally: when has praying DIRECTLY influenced the outcome of an event? Did praying ever save you? Can you prove it?

*or, not of. sorry

Can you please support your argument with a little more proof? Thanks.
ps. I'm not trying to say either side is wrong, just getting some info.

Answer 1

Prayer doesn't work any better than chance would predict. If anything it works as a placebo for some people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH0rFZIqo8A

^^If you still believe prayer works after watching this....I don't see how you could.

Answer 2

Yes I have a severe heart disease and through prayer it stated to do its own bypass. I am living proof of prayers.My daughter also Had cancer and through prayers she was cured. Now she has another Cancer and I am sure the Good Lord will help her again She needs all the prayers she can get. It came back when she was opened up again for a hernia . But I know with a lot of prayers she will be healed again. If anyone would pray for her I thank them in advance. Thank you.

Answer 3

Yes and I can prove it. I was driving down the road, one semi was passing another, I had no place to go, I said Dear Lord help me. My two daughters can attest to what I am saying. Somehow, someway, I was on the other side of the trucks.Those two semis were very real friend and getting awfully big. I couldn't stop. I thank the Lord for hearing my little prayer. Would I say that I believe firmly in prayer, the answer would be yes. Many other times and occasions I saw the power of prayer do many things. Yes it works if you believe. No magic just love the Lord.

Answer 4

Prayer should be asking for God's guidance, his advice on what to do in a situation or circumstance. Also, prayer should be your time with God, to thank him for what you do have, be it family, friends, life, health, or wealth. Never go into a prayer to ask God for something extra. For example, say a relative is dying of a cancer: I wouldn't ask God for a miracle cure (Believe me, I tried, and if it worked, I wouldn't be short a grandmother, grandfather, or father). Instead i would thank God for the time I had been allowed to spend with that person, the memories we shared, or something like that. No one can prove prayer works or doesn't work. There have been real studies done on the effects of prayer, and they all have come to many different conclusions.

Answer 5

When people pray believing they will receive, they receive. We can give you our lists, and doctor reports, and eye witnesses to answered prayers and miracles but nothing will convince you until you meet God for yourself, whether here or at the judgment throne. Nobody is deceiving or conniving to convert you. All we are saying is what we believe. All of us who are Christian will say yes, that I prayed and Jesus saved me from eternal separation from God, that He has saved my soul, and has given me a new life in the company of His Presence. What more do you want?
Those who are truly seeking the truth will recognize the truth when they find it.

Answer 6

Just picture this, I am sitting on the doorsteps of my apartment. Three children will be coming home from school and a man is coming to turn off my electricity. I need $100.00 to keep it on and I need food for my kids. A car slams to a halt in front of my doorsteps. A woman gets out and runs up to me and says "God told me it was you". She goes back to the car and gets a box of food and hands me an envelope with $100.00 inside. This happened in Bowling Green Kentucky in 1998. I had just asked Father God for help and He did not let me down. He never does!

Answer 7

Since several million people pray daily for the health of the Royal Family then Englands royalty aught to be superbly fit and live for ever ! .
One of the university's in Australia recently did a medical study to find if sick people recovered quicker when prayed for , I don't have the figures but there was no difference in recovery rates between the prayed for and the not prayed for.

Answer 8

Prayer is advocated and institutionalized by organized religions, but it predates their involvement.

You don't need to believe in God to pray. Prayer transcends belief or dogma or creed or lack of creed. To pray is to acknowledge the benevolence of the Universe towards me, not to kowtow to some Medieval idea of a Master God, etc.

I think we should try to avoid an ''either/or" mentality about prayer. Prayer is a very personal act, and to allow religious people access to your personal prayer life qualifies as a form of 'emotional incest.'

Whether you pray or not is nobody's business. To pray is not to be unscientific or non-modern. To pray is to participate in something very human and very ancient.

Einstein wrote some interesting things about activites of faith, as activities which stimulate creativity. Prayer must be understood as a proper usage of human imagination. One positive way to pray is to visualize and verbalize good things for others. This is an unselfish way to pray.

Effective prayer is not about persuading the Divine to change or do something for us. Prayer is about changing ourselves -- becoming more gentle, more kind, and more forgiving.

Prayer is also therapeutic, as it exists as a private place where we can attempt to become rigorously honest with ourselves. Honestly is the key to good mental health.

Some religious people pray, but they don't combine their pray with open-mindedness, and so they limit the power of prayer and the power of contacting the Divine aspects within each of us.

Jesus Christ discouraged public praying, and suggested having a private prayer closet. But I think public 'prayers' in church or synagogue or mosque are okay if they have an effect similar to mediation.

Like the water of reading aloud beautiful poetry running over our weary souls again, public prayer liturgies can help to center us, slow us down to concentrate upon what's really important, and to refresh our souls.

I am a secular humanist with a commitment to reason and science. This does not preclude a spiritual life for me.

I reject the idea that scientific people cannot also exercise the mysterious mechanism of our brains and spirits which people have called 'prayer' for 1000s of years.

I do not see a contradiction between saying Morning prayers to the dawn, as a celebration of my ancient pagan heritage, and affirming the truth of evolution. To reject prayer would be rigid thinking, a form of narrow-mindedness, that I reject.

I believe that every thought is in its own way, a prayer. If you observe your thoughts, from minute to minute, and imagine that they are prayers, you then have to ask yourself, what exactly am I 'praying'?

For example, if you constantly worry, which is a waste of our imaginations on negative things, then you are 'praying' for the worst to happen. What you imagine has a weird way of becoming reality over time, if you maintain the focus.

For this reason humans would do well to imagine good, peaceful things, and doing this in prayer is a useful way to activate our minds and our lives for a better future, and not for some gloom and doom LIE told by frightened people (both religious and secular).

Answer 9

Praying with faith works. But the timing of happening does upset patience to wait for prayer answers.

Answer 10

Of course praying works. It works to make religious people feel better. That's all it was ever designed to do.