Why do people pray for sick friends?

Question

Please understand that this is a sincere question, though I am one of those atheist folk.

One of my dearest friends is a woman of great faith. We respect each other's differences. She has another friend who has liver cancer, and who may die.

She is praying to God that he will take her friend's cancer away.

My confusion:

If God is omniscient and omnipotent and has a divine plan, wouldn't this cancer have developed because God wanted it there for whatever reason?

Why would God grant to this prayer? Wouldn't that be implying that God just allowed the cancer to see if anyone would pray for him to take it back?

If things happen, it's because (for the religious among us) God wants them to...so why would people pray to God to change his mind?

Fellow atheists and people who like to stir angst -- please move on to the next question. I am really wanting to understand this. Thanks in advance to all for their understanding.

Soji: If the Devil put the sickness there, an infinite God could remove it with just the wish to do so. Why would he wait for my friend to say "hey, we need some help over here!"

Answer 1

It's a legitimate question.
There is a difference between fatalism, and belief in a sovereign God.
We believe that sickness and deat came into the world as a result of sin. God does not make us ill, but He can choose to prevent certain illnesses. Your argument is that if He chooses not to prevent a person's cancer, then it is because that cancer is part of God's plan for that person. However, it is not necessarily part of God's plan to let the person die of cancer.
And if God chooses to cure the person's cancer, He might choose to do it in answer to prayer. In other words, when I pray for something, I often feel He has led me to pray for that thing, so that we can recognizing HIs hand working in that.
In the same way as He chooses to work through doctors, or through generous givers, in certain situaitons, He also includes people who pray in His plan. And we know this because He has encouraged us continually to pray, in the Bible.
The fatalist argument could also be applied to: "Why bother getting medical treatment if it is god's plan that I have cancer"? But it was also God's plan that people would develope treatments for these ills.
I don't know if this helps you understand our thinking or not (or at least my thinking! LOL)
EDIT:
(can't stop, can I?)
One person has answered that one should pray "God's will be done" rather than pray for the healing. I think God wants us to express sincerely what is really in our hearts. If my heart's desire is that so and so be healed, I should tell God so, and not pretend to be indifferent. However I should combine that with an acceptance of His sovereign will.
I find a number of the psalms to be a great example of this.

Answer 2

I understand how that can be confusing. Yes, God knows everything and knows the answer to our prayers before we ask it. However, we do not know what lies ahead so we are called to pray for the sick. God did not invent disease, that was a consequence of sin and the fall. Most Christians pray for God's will to be done. It is not a cop-out in case that person dies, it is there because we know that His will shall be done no matter what. There have been instances in the Bible where prayer did change God's mind. King Uzziah was at the point of death when he prayed that God would grant him more time. He was given 15 more years. There is a verse in Ezekiel (22:30) Where God says I would have spared Jerusalem if there had been someone to "stand in the gap". to pray for the sins of that city so it would not be destroyed but He found no one. The city was destroyed. Well all this to say, God wants us to "stand in the gap" for each other. His will may be to say no, and take that person home, but the prayer counts. It may be to comfort the sick or make the person praying stronger. we won't know till judgement day.

Answer 3

As a Christian I appreciate the question. It is difficult, I sometimes think it is wrong to pray for a person's healing, I think we should pray for God's will. But if it was a family member or someone close I probably would pray for healing as well. I do believe God will listen to petitioners in prayer, and sometimes grant what we ask, but clearly He can't do this for everyone who prays. Here's the best example I can come up with, forgive it's crudeness... A baseball team prays it wins the upcoming game. The other team prays for the same thing. Who does God choose? Sometimes we don't understand God's reasoning.

Answer 4

People have a confussion on what is and what is not the will of God. The perfect example of God's will is what Jesus did while He was on the earth. He prayed for every sick person He met and every single one of them got healed. We as christians are called to be like Christ. So that means we pray for people believing that they will be healed. I have prayed for literally hundreds of people and many have been healed. I have prayed for tumors and in a instant they literally just disapear. Some healings have been documented and confirmed by doctors. Most doctors either have no explanation or become saved. You have a searching heart dont you? I believe that you are very close to salvation even if you don't know it. God bless!

Answer 5

hon, not everything happens because God wants it to - if that is so, then sin came into the world because God wanted man to sin (which is ludicrous). Sickness happens for many reasons - genetics, not staying away from carcinogens or living an unhealthy lifestyle, or no apparent "reason" that we can see. God "wants" everyone to live in health - otherwise He would not have provided for it in the atonement...by His stripes we are healed...the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much....the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up....etc. satan comes to steal, kill and destroy and we must learn to fight his evil plans and devices using prayer and God's Word. Sometimes God says yes, sometimes He says no and sometimes He says wait. But whatever He says, we still have the duty to sincerely, fervently pray until His Will is determined for each situation. We always end every prayer with "Thy will be done." God has more "headaches" trying to get our free will in line with His so that He can manifest more answers than we have of "getting" God to move. There are many, many facets to healing but God does heal and wants to heal.

Answer 6

Sometimes there is nothing else we can do. God may or may not act on our prayers; that is according to Him. But He has been known to on occasion. Still, while I would pray for the person's cancer to be cured, I would also pray that they be given peace, and strength to endure, and likewise for their loved ones. It's a good idea to end any prayer with "Be it according to thy will, not mine." In the OT, King Hezekiah was given a death sentence by the Lord, but changed God's mind with a sincere prayer. King David prayed for the life of his dying infant and was denied. It is according to God's will, and that is not a thing we are given to understand right now. I realize that is a stumbling block for a lot of atheists: the fact that we aren't given all the answers or explanations. We Christians struggle with it too sometimes, you know.

Answer 7

Ultimately prayer of this nature is for the person doing the praying. They THINK it does good, they BELIEVE it does good so they feel that they are doing something to help when in reality they aren't. This allows them to relax a little bit about the situation. If they believe that they have done something to help, and that a plan is in action they may have less anxiety over the situation.

Answer 8

The Bible says somewhere that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" or something to that effect. Those who pray believe that their prayers will help, that they need to ask God for help even though the Bible says that he knows their needs beforehand.

While I respect their beliefs, I personally think that it is just superstition.
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Answer 9

for one thing, if there isnt a god, it still makes them feel better to pray if they are religious. and if there is one, maybe he will hear the prayers and cure them, its kind of an incentive to pray, keeps him in business, it would be called job security if god were in a union or politics. either way, it doesnt hurt anyone, there are no atheists in foxholes they say.

Answer 10

Putting it simply, I believe in positive thinking which relates to prayer. The mind can change a lot of things in people's lives. It has been scientifically proven that positive people get well faster.