Thank you so much. This is the answer that I have been seeking because this morning, I was just thinking, why (some not all) of my prayers have longed been unanswered and this morning when I turned on my computer, you have answered it for me . . . to do his will. Thank you so much. - Sandy Rogers

I appreciate this scripture so much, for it reminds me that when I am praying for those around me to change and "step up to the plate" that I'm often praying for the wrong person. My prayer today is that I will be MY best and let God take care of the others. - LM

By reading the Bible people can discern God's will. If people read the Bible on the subjects about which they pray then they would know how to ask in His will and there would be many more answered prayers. Reading the Bible and prayer naturally fit together because He speaks through His word, we listen and then we ask according to His will. Prayer is a two-sided conversation. - Janice

Nothing fails like prayer. - Erik

My prayer to God would be, to teach me how to pray, to build my faith by believing. - Edward

Erik, tell us why you believe nothing fails like prayer. Have none of your prayers been answered? - FCE

Isn't it possible that lots of times we are like small children when we pray ?If our prayers are not answered immediately or we don't get what we pray for,we dig our heels in and are angry with God or in some cases turn our backs on Him completely. Prayer does not go unanswered...sometimes the answer is NO ( sometimes it's not yet ).I do wonder however,when we go to God in prayer and are already out of His will ,do our prayers even get acknowledged? When I have gone through tough times in the past,I have had non-believeing friends offer to prayer for me.I can't help but think privately...why bother,what good would that do?Any thoughts on that ?? - susan

Thanks for your question, FCE. By way of answering, I would have to ask you- or anyone here- what evidence do we have that prayer does anything (other than provide comfort for the person praying)? Studies fail to show any benefit.
All we have are anecdotes ("my uncle Slim had cancer, we prayed for a miracle and he got better") which don't really add up to much. People in primitive societies often say the same thing-- "I sacrificed a goat to the tiki god and he blessed me with a new hut". That doesn't leave much to go on. Instead of praying I think we should spend more time doing. - Erik

The sad thing about this, Erik, is you're right - there's no way to prove prayer DOES work. It's all a matter of faith in a God who answers prayers according to His will and in perfect accordance with the scriptures. In what or whom do you put your faith, Erik? - ME

Susan, you have asked a very thoughtful question. I have had similar concerns when a Jewish friend and at another time a Muslim offered to pray for a situation. They believe strongly in prayer, too, but they do not pray in the name of Jesus. I suppose that those who go along with the doctrine of election might consider that in the future these people may become aware that they are believing Christians so perhaps their current prayers could be holding more weight with God than we could possibly know? Something to think about. - Janice

So ME- you are conceding my point then- that there is no evidence (or very little evidence) that prayer "works". So why promote something for which there is no evidence? It seems irresponsible to me. - Erik Almighty

Erik, you are right. Prayer is extremely irresponsible, foolish and possibly crazy --- if Jesus is not the Messiah. First decide if you think Jesus is Lord, liar or lunatic. Once you make that decision and let us know what your position is, then we can begin to have a conversation with mutual understanding on the merits of prayer. (FYI, my position is that Jesus is Lord.) - Scott

I really needed to hear this. I do sometimes get caught up in me. I'm learning how to ask god for his perfect will in my prayer life. I guess the scripture that states God will give you the desires of your heart can be taken out of content. As you can see I'm still learning scripture and I really want to work on having a personal relationship with God.

Vanessa Harris - Vanessa

Thanks for your question, Scott. I'm familiar with the trilemma (in fact I used to use it as part of my
apologetics spiel when I was a Baptist)- but the problem is that it makes certain unjustified assumptions and doesn't present all the options. From all the evidence all we can say about Jesus is that he probably lived. That's it. And that is by no means certain. The accounts of Him in the Gospels are far from reliable. We really don't know what he said or did. So it's hard to argue the Lord, Liar, Lunatic thing. You may want to look at Bart Ehrman's book "Misquoting Jesus: The story behind who changed the Bible and why" for more on the reliability of the Gospel accounts of Jesus' sayings. - Erik the Erik

As usual, Erik, you are taking out of context what anyone who tries to defend their faith in this forum is saying. When you get right down to it, the process of proving anything, whether scientific or religious, is all based on a theory of one kind or another. Science is based on theory; religious beliefs are based on theory. I choose to base my faith on what I believe to be the undeniable truths of the Word of God, which by the way, have yet to be scientifically unproven in any way, shape or form. Quite the opposite. Historians are constantly proving that the Bible is true every time they try to disprove it. Obviously, something happened to the faith that you once espoused in the Lord, and now you are choosing to place your faith in the theory of Erik. That is fine and is totally your choice. But I can tell you with absolute confidence that based on my faith in Jesus Christ, when the day comes that my life comes to an end, He will be standing at the gates of heaven welcoming me to my final victory - spending eternity with Him. What do you suppose will happen on the day you die, my friend? I can promise that the choice is yours, and undeniably, you will one day meet your Maker. Personally, I pray that you will return to the faith of your youth and I will get to spend eternity with Erik the Mighty. - ME

Erik, you have hit on something. If you are honestly looking for the truth, I have a book for you. It is called A Case For Christ and is written by Lee Strobel who is a well known investigative reporter. You will be surprised how very reliable the Bible is and actually more so than most history that is widely accepted as fact. The book is very thorough and I think you will really be intellectually stimulated by the reading. - Martha

ME- your reply contains more assertions than I think they will allow me space for. I strongly disagree with your claim that I usually take things out of context when answering someone's question here. In particular I was merely agreeing with what you seemed to be saying- that there is no evidence that prayer works or is beneficial. I am making no other claim than that. If it works, then let's see the evidence. If not, then we shouldn't be promoting it like a quack selling snake-oil. That's all I'm saying. - Erik the Answerer

I know that prayer works. I have had many miracles in my life because of prayer. I have children because of prayer. I am living because of prayer. I have family memebers living because of prayer. My dad should be dead but because someone was standing in the gap for him day and night beside his bed in the hospital and praying and believing that God can raise him, he is alive and well today. You also are alive today because somone is praying for you. maybe a parent, grandmother or maybe someone you don't even know that God has layed you on their heart to pray for you. There had been people in other countries, missionaries, our military people or just anyone, that can be in trouble and God can speak to someone in this country, state, city or town to pray for a specific person by name to pray them out of trouble. I have heard from some of those people. Sometimes when we pray, and if we pray God's will, our prayer may not be answered because God knows best. Sometimes we pray amiss. What we may be praying for may not be good for us, and because God loves us so much, he will not give us something will harm us. Somewhere down the line we will see why he didn't answer our prayer and we can be grateful and thank God for not answering the way we wanted him to. NR - Nora Roberts

Erik - What event(s) have caused you to go from being an apologetic (believer) to an adamnant agnostic.
Prayer is no more a waste of time for a Christian than practice is a waste of time for an athlete. Prayer is preparation. Preparation for His coming. If a man's prayer is not answered it is an indication that His will will not be honored if that action or event occurs. If one has true faith, Prayer is not so much asking for "things" or "events". What Prayer is then is really reflection on God's will and how that person fits into it. Prayer can also be an opportunity to thank Him, and to ask Him for discipline and strength. I challenge you to find a devout person who genuinely desired discipline and strength, went to the Father (through Jesus Christ)
and and asked for it, and thus did not receive it. Erik, in whom or where does your faith lie now? You must have faith in something or someone! - TG

Erik - What event(s) have caused you to go from being an apologetic (believer) to an adamnant agnostic.
Prayer is no more a waste of time for a Christian than practice is a waste of time for an athlete. Prayer is preparation. Preparation for His coming. If a man's prayer is not answered it is an indication that His will will not be honored if that action or event occurs. If one has true faith, Prayer is not so much asking for "things" or "events". What Prayer is then is really reflection on God's will and how that person fits into it. Prayer can also be an opportunity to thank Him, and to ask Him for discipline and strength. I challenge you to find a devout person who genuinely desired discipline and strength, went to the Father (through Jesus Christ)
and and asked for it, and thus did not receive it. Erik, in whom or where does your faith lie now? You must have faith in something or someone! - TG

TG- rather than answer questions about my faith or lack thereof, I'd like to settle this question of intercessory prayer. Specifically, why pray "for" events to happen- (example- a sick person being healed) when there is no evidence that it helps? The subject of this devotion is 'when prayer disappoints'- my argument is that we need not be disappointed by prayer if we understand that it doesn't work. If you have evidence to the contrary I'd love to see it.
- Erik

Erik, right. You are stating that because prayer does not work, then one should not be disappointed. I think we would all agree with this, if we also agreed with your first premise. The problem is that most of us do not.

Also, you are asking for provable evidence of effects of prayer on events. You know (since you have a Biblical background) that this is not something that is provable.

I would love to know the answer. Unfortunately, the mystery of God is not like an Agatha Cristie novel. It is not solvable by us, not matter how much we would like it to be otherwise. In the past, it was a stumbling block in my faith, because I would so prideful of my knowledge. Now I choose to be humbled by that fact. - Scott

Thanks for your comment Scott. You say that you disagree with my first premise, namely that "prayer doesn't work". However this is not really up for debate, is it? Time and time again intercessory prayer shows no benefits when studied. Now, you may claim that God only answers prayers when Godless scientists aren't looking, but I think we both see how weak that argument would be. Again, my first premise is not a matter of controversy. It has been settled. What anyone chooses to do with this knowledge, or how it affects your personal faith is up to you. I'm just saying that we should recognize that when little Timmy gets cancer, having the church pray for little Timmy has 0 chance of healing him. We really have to face these hard truths if we are going to move forward. - Erik the Truth-Protector

I apologize for the extra post here- I somehow overlooked Martha's comment and I feel she deserves an answer, even though I am reluctant to leave the prayer issue. Martha- I have read "A Case for Christ". In fact I just looked over my copy, which sits on my desk, before responding to you. I find Mr. Strobel to be very dishonest, in that he tries to pass his book off as a skeptic's unbiased investigation of Christianity. It is no such thing. He had converted many years prior and was not a skeptic when the book was written. Furthermore he only interviewed authorities who supported his position. He never interviewed any of the top scholars (eg Bart Ehrman) who easily refute his positions. Also, if you do some research on the scholars he interviewed (and yes, they are well-respected in their fields) you will find that none of them believe in Biblical inerrancy or any of the other doctrines to which most fundamentalists are inextricably wedded. If you don't believe me then ask him yourself- he is coming to Atlanta in November. I double dog dare anyone to ask him whether he believes in the inerrancy of Scripture. - Erik the Verbose

Erik, I recommend you go to this site: http://www.reasonablefaith.org
I think you'll find the discussion not only interesting but challenging as well. One of their missions is to challenge unbelievers with the truth of biblical Christianity. I pray you find the truth.
- FCE

Prayer changes things. It always works for me. Over the pass four weeks I have had someone call me on my job and told me what the LORD told them to tell me. It was the answer to my prayer, and I had asked the LORD for an answer. So I can truly say that Prayer is indeed the answer to my life problems. However, even after the lady told me what the LORD said, I went to church and our vising Pastor preach on the very same things the Lady said to me. "That's Prayer". - Stephanie

Often we approach God in prayer like a child approaches Santa...asking for whatever we want. God knows every heart and every need even BEFORE the prayer reaches our lips. His will does not always match our request. That doesn't mean He doesn't listen or care. Like any good parent he knows how to say no when it is in our best interest. God loves us and only wishes what is best for us.
Sometimes listening for God's will and instruction takes a gigantic leap of faith on our part. Faith is sometime a challenge, but the reward is mighty. - JIm