Yes. Countless upon countless prayers have been answered in so many ways in my lifetime. God is Good ALL the time!
Exactly. Or at least give a reason for the question or a some links to something bringing the topic current. Something, please.
Example What do guys think about the power of prayer? linked is an article and news report from earlier this month about a church which claims to have evidence of the power of prayer. Me, personally, I just think its coincidence. I don't put any stock into prayer. What about you?
When the Lord finally got hold of me, He reminded me at that very point in time that it was the (many) prayers of my parents that led me to Him. I've never regretted that decision, even once, in my life. That was over 20 years ago. As mentioned above, God has answered countless upon countless prayers. You can call it all coincidence of you'd like, but I know that I know what God has done, can, and will do. Love it.
And the last time I prayed, and I mean really prayed, hard long and repeatedly, it was the month following my niece's birth. Less than 1 month later she died.
Sometimes, things don't always work out the way that "we" want. Does that mean we are to quit praying entirely? Absolutely not. God's ways are always higher than ours. 2 Samuel 12:15-24
You can't have it both ways. Either we can't possibly know god, so no prayer needed and no need to believe. Or, we understand god in which case prayers should matter and belief should result in prayer fulfillment.
In the purest sense, we pray, yet trust in God for the results. Many times I've said to myself, "Man, if God had answered my prayer(s) in the way that "I" wanted, then (fill in the blank here), a MUCH better result, wouldn't have happened!" God knows the beginning from the end. I trust Him in that. I'm glad for it, as well.
Terrible things happen due to sin being in the world. The Bible is clear about that. The good news (if you're a believer) is that there's a much, much, MUCH better place to come. Sorry to hear about your niece.
I'll put the niece card away now. Show me influence that prayer has, and that will be a start. Perhaps not all prayers should be answered, there are reasons I might not understand. But surly there will be some prayer answered, more than random. Show me a well designed study showing there is some measurable effect. In a peer reviewed journal. There must be thousands of these studies showing how prayer unequivically works more often than by total random.
I'm sure they're out there. I'm simply telling you that it has worked in my own life...and in the lives of many of my friends and family.
This I agree with. And I believe that prayer can have an affect on the person praying akin to the placebo effect. And that can be powerful. So I see praying for your blood pressure to lower, that could work (although not as well as medicine), but you praying for my blood pressure to decrease is fruitless. But either way, it's not god, it's our own brains ability at work.
I remember years ago Art Bell used to pick an area hit hard by drought and would ask his radio listeners to pray for rain for that area as an experiment to see if prayer worked. I can't remember if it ever worked because I would end up falling asleep before the show was over.
I remember that. I found Art Bell back in high school, around 1990 and spent many sleepy days at school cause I was up half the night listening to this kook. He sure is fun, even if he ha no ability to distinguish between fact and fiction. He introduced me to many concepts, kind of last centuries Joe Rogan.
