An interesting article in U.S. News and World Report caused much discussion I overheard this week.
By Michael Conlon
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A study of more than 1,800 patients who underwent heart bypass surgery has failed to show that prayers specially organized for their recovery had any impact, researchers said on Thursday.
In fact, the study found some of the patients who knew they were being prayed for did worse than others who were only told they might be prayed for -- though those who did the study said they could not explain why.
The patients in the study at six U.S. hospitals included 604 who were actually prayed for after being told they might or might not be; another 597 patients who were not prayed for after being told they might or might not be; and a group of 601 who were prayed for and told they would be the subject of such prayer.
The conversation went something like "The people who were praying didn't have faith" or "They just didn't know how to pray"...and so on....I hate it when people seem to have all the answers. It occurred to me that the study was actually not measuring much of what happens in peoples lives when they are going through trials. The study only measured whether or not the patient got well. I wish they would do a study that measured the grace and peace that people have when they go through trials whether it is sickness or a child on drugs.
I have a friend who is going through a terrible trial with a newborn. The Drs are saying the infant may or may not have some terrible problems. They do know she has a cleft palet and maybe some other problems but I loved what one of the ministers told her when she said she was tired of people telling her that God would not put more on her than she could bear. The minister told her "God didn't do this but He did promise to go through it with you".
That is how I see this whole thing on prayer. The study on prayer does not measure how a person goes through the trial. That is the study I want to see. I watched my neighbor's husband go through 7 years with his wife's sickness. She was not healed on this earth but had an ultimate healing after much prayer and I saw God's grace in the lives of her family. They are stronger believers today than they have ever been. You cannot measure God's grace in a study. It has to be experienced. You can tell someone about God's grace as they go through trials but it is a gift from God and they must receive it as a gift. God does not push Himself on anyone. So back to the study on Prayer... when they figure out a way to measure God's Grace on the patients and their family I want to see that report.
Posted by: wilma
