"DO NOT BE ANXIOUS ABOUT ANYTHING, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." So says the Bible (Philippians 4:6 (NIV)).
Does prayer really work? We Christians says yes, based on . . .
. . . faith and experience.
We pray because we believe there is a God, that God the Father hears prayers made in the name of God the Son (Jesus), and that God literally answers our prayers, though not always in the way we hoped or expected.
To her own surprise, New York writer Elizabeth Bernstein recently prayed on "one of the worst [days] of my life." Her father, who suffered a stroke and heart attack weeks earlier, went into cardiac arrest.
I have never been someone who prays much, but as I paced the hallway outside my dad’s room while doctors worked—for four long minutes—to jump-start his heart, a nurse asked if I wanted to pray. I told her I did, but wasn’t sure how. She took my hands in hers, bowed her head to mine, and began praying out loud for both of us. “Dear Lord, we ask for your support . . . ."
Intrigued by her unexpected experience, Ms. Bernstein investigated the benefits of prayer. Her essay, "The Science of Prayer: People often pray in crisis. Research suggests if may boost mental health," The Wall Street Journal, May 17, 2020, was written from a secular perspective, neither accepting nor rejecting religious claims for prayer.
Here are some some snips:
Many people are looking to a higher power for comfort these days. In March, the number of Google searches for prayer skyrocketed, according to a not-yet-published analysis of search results for 95 countries by an economist at the University of Copenhagen. A Pew Research Center survey in March also found that more than half of Americans had prayed to end the spread of the coronavirus.
“There may still be some atheists in foxholes,” says Kenneth Pargament, a professor emeritus in the department of psychology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, who studies how people use religion to cope with major life stressors and trauma. “But the general trend is for the religious impulse to quicken in a time of crisis.”
Scientists have no way to measure the existence of a higher power, of course. And they’ve done little research on any health benefits of prayer . . . says David H. Rosmarin, assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and director of the Spirituality and Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital, in Belmont, Mass.
Prayer is also hard to study, Dr. Rosmarin says. . . .
. . . .A 2005 study in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine comparing secular and spiritual forms of meditation found spiritual meditation to be more calming. In secular meditation, you focus on something such as your breath or a nonspiritual word. In spiritual meditation, you focus on a spiritual word or text. . . .
Researchers found that the group that practiced spiritual meditation showed greater decreases in anxiety and stress and more positive mood. They also tolerated pain almost twice as long when asked to put their hand in an ice water bath.
. . . .
Prayer can also foster a sense of connection—with a higher power, your environment and other people, including “the generations of people who have prayed before you,” says Kevin Ladd, a psychologist and director of the Social Psychology of Religion Lab at Indiana University South Bend.
People pray for many reasons, including for guidance, thanksgiving, solace or protection. But not all prayer is created equal, experts say. A 2004 study on religious coping methods in the Journal of Health Psychology found that people who approach God as a partner, or collaborator, in their life had better mental- and physical-health outcomes, and people who are angry at God—who feel punished or abandoned—or who relinquish responsibility and defer to God for solutions had worse outcomes. It’s similar to the way a loving relationship to a partner brings out the best in you, says Dr. Pargament, the lead researcher on the study.
Prayer can also help your marriage . . . . Researchers . . . have found that when people pray for the well-being of their spouse when they feel a negative emotion in the marriage, both partners—the one doing the praying and the one being prayed for—report greater relationship satisfaction. “Prayer gives couples a chance to calm down,” says [the scholar] who conducted the studies. “And it reinforces the idea that you are on the same team.”
. . . .
“When I pray, I get that feeling you have when you talk to a friend who is a really good listener,” [says a 26-year-old New Yorker interviewed by Ms. Bernstein.] “I feel seen and heard, and I get a burden off my shoulders.”
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UNCA D encourages you, dear readers, to turn to prayer as well. The first step is to turn to God in faith. How? When the Apostle Peter answered, “Repent and be baptized . . . in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
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