Do you believe in the power of prayer?

[High Altitude]

Not as in magical powers of healing and miracles but as something that its capable of deeply altering the human mind. And if you do, what do you think it wor

I was watching this video for example.

Its a doctor performing open heart surgery in Mexico's city the earthquake starts mid video.



Its basically they talking technical medical shit, then earthquake starts and after some swearing and when people seem to be panicking the main doctor starts to recite the catholic prayer "Our father" that seems to calm the fuck out of the individuals present in the room, and they go on and finish the surgery.

Now i started this thread because i felt a little panic watching the video but the prayer gives such a sense of serenity to me that i cant deny its soothing powers.

That being said, i dont think it has anything to do with the divine, maybe its a Pavlovian effect of so many times going to church and being immersed in the serenity of mass that the prayer triggers such sense of serenity and peace. Or maybe we are wired that way to find comfort in prayer which i guess is like a sort of meditation, where repeating these words over and over puts the mind in a trance like state.

Another reason to make this thread is to see if other religions have similar tools.

@ripskater Do evangelists have some defined prayers that you repeat over and over and over?

It doesn't have to be prayer. The prayer itself isn't the reason, but anything that sounds soothing.

I was in an operating room where something went terribly wrong and most everyone started to completely panic. The surgeon had a nurse turn on some music, fire and rain by James Taylor was the song that came on, and instantly people started to calm down and the situation was handled.

 

[unimackpass]

I believe in prayer for sure. I also think there will come a time when scientific inquiry will detect certain energies that flow through human beings.

I've seen to many inexplicable things not to.

 

[franklinstower]

I've seen to many inexplicable things not to.

As have I. The only frustrating thing to me is that because there is no way to prove any of it and because we live in an age where reason reigns supreme and evidence is required for belief we are losing many people to doubt and skepticism.

 

[FacePunch]

Of course not, its stupid.

 

[HIMBOB]

For self? Sure. Placebo. Third-party prayer? Absolutely not. Prayer in general? A nice centering mechanism that holds actual substance other than effect, which I guess is all that matters in a crisis.

I do think praying to help a third party could help you think of and act on ideas that could really help them.

 

[HIMBOB]

Kind of like The Secret as i understand it (never read it).

Focus on positive and you are more likely to do things that allow good things to happen.

Aint magic in fact quite logical.

 

[sleepwalk]

I know a few irreligious people who will still use a Rosary or similar traditions from their upbringing as a centering and calming exercise. Especially those with beads or totems or another physical component. The more complex the ritual, the more it draws their focus and allows them to ignore a distraction and focus on another thought/task/whatever.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_beads
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_chant

 

[unimackpass]

As have I. The only frustrating thing to me is that because there is no way to prove any of it and because we live in an age where reason reigns supreme and evidence is required for belief we are losing many people to doubt and skepticism.

A lot of people because of reason end up believing. Investigating the odds for the fine tuning of the universe being mathematically impossible has caused more than one scientist to embark on what became a spiritual journey.

A Aleut friend of mine that lives on Kodiak island was totally healed of cancer instantly, tumors and all. While he was in a Anchorage hospital some people visiting we're praying for him. He knew he was instantly healed but the hospital of course wouldn't let him leave until they did tests.

Results shook up the whole place because he was close to dying and was living his last few days out in the hospital.
Shook up the whole village also. People kept going to his house to find out "what the heck?" He just showed them the hospital transcripts that basically ended with (paraphrase)"apparently inexplicably healed."

He went commercial fishing with our herring group that spring. People kept coming over to the boats to talk to him because everyone knew he was almost gone and then was fishing. It was some wild and crazy times.

That's just one thing.

 

[colby25]

Well yes, the "power of prayer" as a means of gaining deific intercession is a non starter. There's no such thing as the supernatural.

The fact that youre alive talking on an online forum is supernatural

 

[franklinstower]

My life has been touched so deeply by God that I wouldn't even know where to begin. It is the single most important thing that has ever happened to me and since the age of 20 when I first felt touched by God in a deep way, its been my whole life purpose to draw closer to God and help others do so.

I gave up any career opportunities at that very moment and decide rain or shine riches or poverty I was going to spend all my time towards this end. It has worked out well.

I believe your account and have been privy to many others like it in my corner of the world.

I appreciate your first paragraph as a reminder that reason takes many to God. I can lose sight of that because I have always known in my bones and never went through any kind of process intellectually in coming to believe. That has its disadvantages.

I think I was referencing the growing atheist movement and the damage that movement can and does do for those who would believe. Its not reason that is the problem, its the arrogance that our use of reason should already have discovered all the mysteries of life.

 

[colby25]

Prayer is real.

Too many prayers in my life answered to be coincidental. Prayer= speaking talking to God... Only thing greater is when God speaks to you.

Its an experience i cant explain it happens now and again. Sometimes its that still small voice like an itch you cant scratch urging you to do something... And itll normally be something that is contrary to what you want to do. To speak to a stranger or help someone.. Prayer for someone- it varies.

I remember last year i had this deep conviction to go pray for someone who id never met and he lived half way across the country. And be in his presence with prayer for him. I started looking at plane tickets to go pray for him. I finally stopped and was like is this you God? This what you want me to do?

A few hours later my boss calls me and asks me to go half away across the country for training which put me at like a 4 hr drive away from the guy... Still a haul but i figure i could do it on a weekend. I figure it was an answer of yes.

I never ended up doing it or visited him. I wussed out. On my travel back i prayed and said i let you down on that one God. Fast forward probably 8 months later.

Our church was traveling to a conference about 10 hrs away... Were setting up shop in the hotel and who do i see? The guy i felt God spoke to me to pray for and felt like God say you forget about someone?

So in an extremely uncomfortable situation i walk up to him introduce myself... Took me a little bit to confess to him but eventually i told him that i felt like God wanted me to pray for him and i did. He has serious health issues... Idk why or what will happen - if hell be healed or not. But thats one incident.

Approach it from scientific standpoint what are the chances of all that coming together? Hard to explain... But some will chalk it up as coincidence i suppose.

But i think einstein said either everything is mere chance or coincidence or EVERYTHING is divine and miraculous.

 

[KONG-D'SNT-TAP]

Try and pray for your mortgage payment. See how that works for you

 

[colby25]

Try and pray for your mortgage payment. See how that works for you

Thou shalt not put the LORD your God to the test.

But... Depends on how you go about it. You do it passingly trying to test the LORD- doubt itll happen but God can do anything.

Now say youre down and out struggling to keep afloat, stressing, and you call on the LORD... I bet it works.

I opened up an MMA gym that offers free mma in exchange for bible study. Itd be 100% free. Wasnt sure how itd open or pay for rent but walk by faith. First month landlord gave for free cause it was a mess.

Second month furnace busted so got it fixed landlord gave 2nd month for free.

3rd month waterline busted. Landlord says if i can get it fixed hell give me the lease for free as it was a big job. A few weeks prior i ran into an old friend who is a mechanical engineer... I ask if i can rent some equipment from him he goes no but ill loan you equipment what do you need it for?

I tell him and he comes down and does the whole job. I go to try and pay him and he goes no just come on a missionary trip with him. So to pay for Gods work get to go serve God in another country?

Cant be more ordained than that. Lease is up and in the beginning of the new lease this month? Get a check to cover 2 months rent.

Where God guides God provides

 

[KONG-D'SNT-TAP]

Thou shalt not put the LORD your God to the test.

But... Depends on how you go about it. You do it passingly trying to test the LORD- doubt itll happen but God can do anything.

Now say youre down and out struggling to keep afloat, stressing, and you call on the LORD... I bet it works.

I opened up an MMA gym that offers free mma in exchange for bible study. Wasnt sure how itd open or pay for rent but walk by faith. First month landlord gave for free cause it was a mess.

Second month furnace busted so got it fixed landlord gave 2nd month for free.

3rd month waterline busted. Landlord says if i can get it fixed hell give me the lease for free as it was a big job. A few weeks prior i ran into an old friend who is a mechanical engineer... I ask if i can rent some equipment from him he goes no but ill loan you equipment what do you need it for?

I tell him and he comes down and does the whole job. I go to try and pay him and he goes no just come on a missionary trip with him. So to pay for Gods work get to go serve God in another country?

Cant be more ordained than that. Lease is up and in the beginning of the new lease this month? Get a check to cover 2 months rent.

Where God guides God provides

What the heck are you talking about man

 

[colby25]

Try and pray for your mortgage payment. See how that works for you

People at work ask how its going to stay in business and i go idk... God will provide.

And they laugh and say thats the stupid thing they ever heard and make jokes... Some jokes are pretty funny actually.

But its amazing to see God work, and how gracious He is

 

[colby25]

What the heck are you talking about man

You said pray for God to pay your mortgage. I just gave you 7 months of prayer being answered to pay for a mortgage.

 

[Rusk]

So you had a prayer answered while you were an atheist? Do you know whay that statement is retards level of stupud?

atheists cant doubt their position? or have their prayers answered?

 

[unimackpass]

My life has been touched so deeply by God that I wouldn't even know where to begin. It is the single most important thing that has ever happened to me and since the age of 20 when I first felt touched by God in a deep way, its been my whole life purpose to draw closer to God and help others do so.

I gave up any career opportunities at that very moment and decide rain or shine riches or poverty I was going to spend all my time towards this end. It has worked out well.

I believe your account and have been privy to many others like it in my corner of the world.

I appreciate your first paragraph as a reminder that reason takes many to God. I can lose sight of that because I have always known in my bones and never went through any kind of process intellectually in coming to believe. That has its disadvantages.

I think I was referencing the growing atheist movement and the damage that movement can and does do for those who would believe. Its not reason that is the problem, its the arrogance that our use of reason should already have discovered all the mysteries of life.

I've seen many people go through what your talking about that totally changed their life and they always look back on it as a crossroads for something immeasurably better.
My sister went through one of the most profound changes because of a spiritual experience that I've ever witnessed. Her husband couldn't quit talking about it for a long time. He was pretty cautious about spiritual things but that cured any caustic attitude he once had. The change basically saved their marriage just for starters.
My mom visiting 6months later started crying because they hadn't really got along that well before and she asked me in tears "what happened to Sonja?" Pretty difficult to explain a spiritual encounter that becomes more real to someone than normal reality. That was several years ago and it's only become more real and deepened in her life.

A few years ago was gearing up for a speed skiing contest that I hadn't told anyone about. My brother in law called up in the morning and asked what I was up to since I hadn't visited for a while. Told him what I was doing and then he paused for a second and told me the reason he called. My sister woke up crying that morning because she had a dream I was in a speed skiing contest and had a horrible crash and when they checked on me I was alive but barely. Didn't speed ski.

Her life is basically a ongoing ministry whether she is commercial fishing or going overseas. Still blows me away.

 

[unimackpass]

Another time someone asked my sister to go with her to a friends house that had broke his back. The guy was laying on the couch with a bunch of pain pills. A copy of the ex-ray was laying on the table. They all prayed.

The guy showed up at her church the next day healed saying he hadn't bin to a church for a long time but wanted to tell everyone what happened. He was pretty shaken up.
Ya, I guess I believe in prayer.

 

[Lubaolong]