Since the first days of man, we have prayed or talked with God. Adam talked with God. His first conversation happened when Eve was created from his rib. The first time the word "pray" is used in the Bible is when Abraham was in a jam and tried to pass his wife Sarah off as his sister.
In the late 1980s, Doctor Randolph Byrd, a cardiologist at San Francisco General Hospital conducted a study to determine if prayer helps people get better. He divided his cardiac patients in two groups. Half of the patients received prayer. The other half did not. Doctors and nurses did not know who was receiving prayer and who was not. When the experiment was over, those who received prayer did better in a significant number of ways.
In the 1990s, another prayer experiment was conducted at St Luke's hospital in Kansas City, MO. In the course of a year, nearly a thousand heart patients were divided into two groups. Half of the patients received prayer. The other half did not. When the experiment was over, the patients receiving prayer experienced 10 percent fewer complications, ranging from chest pains to cardiac arrest.
The Apostle James knew that prayer would always be questioned or devalued. With so many naysayers and doubters around us, he knew through the telescope of time that we would need a fresh "Word" to encourage us when doubts about prayer surface. It may be part of the reason he wrote, "...The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" (James 5:16).
The Psalmist also knew the source and power of prayer. He wrote, "I will lift up my eyes to the hills-- From whence comes my help? Our help comes from God who made heaven and earth" (Psalm 121:1-2).
The thing about prayer is that you can't place it in a test tube. Science tries to measure with a slide rule but can't. So since they can't get their "arms around it," they discount it. Yet as Christians, even though we don't fully understand it, we place a measure of faith along side it and know it works.
So, does prayer really make a difference? Does God really hear and answer our prayers? The answer is, yes. For He says, "Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer in this place" (2 Chronicles 7:15). Hmm. Maybe now would be good time to pray.
Pastor Larry Wenzel
