Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. James 5:16
Recently I came across a headline that caught my attention. It was referencing a medical study and read, “Does Prayer Work.” My first thoughts were not what the results might be, but rather what did they mean by that question. In my mind, the very formation of that question is the wrong premise.
What did they mean?
There have been various studies on this but they all measured the same thing. Whether a patient’s health improved if they were prayed for. In other words, did God do what was wanted. But this begs the question, if the patient failed to get better, or maybe even died, does that mean that the prayers did not “work?”
What is the purpose of prayer?
God is not a vending machine. If you put in enough prayers, you get the prize. The studies can only measure external results where the preferred outcome is pre-determined to be a measurable physical response. What about pain and suffering? Is that measurable, if relieved? It disregards spiritual comfort for the patient not to mention the change in the person praying.
Jesus did the more important work of granting forgiveness to a paralyzed man dropped through the roof. And then, to reveal His authority, He healed Him physically. The purpose of coming to God in prayer is not to get God to do what we want, to have God align with our desires. It is to align us with His. In so doing, sometimes He intervenes and acts in accordance with our requests, but only as it furthers His greater glory. But He always hears and acts on the pleas of His children, even if it is the unseen work on our heart.
Who are the prayers to?
The other unanswered question in the study is who are they praying to. Only the Sovereign God of the Universe, the great I AM, is able to answer prayer. Otherwise, they are measuring positive feelings and other placebo type effects. Sending “positive vibes” to someone might brighten their day to know they’re thought of but there is no power to effect change.
The results of most of these studies are understandably mixed. God cannot be put in a box or otherwise reduced to measurable and predictable responses. He alone chooses where and how to reveal Himself in responding to our prayers. Only He knows the hearts and minds of those that call upon Him. Only He is fully good and loving and knows how to answer each plea.
Does prayer “work?” Absolutely. God acts at the request of His children. But not always in the way we would choose at the time. He calls us to pray – for ourselves, for each other – and so He continues to work out His glory in our lives.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 John 5:14
