Week Seven SOC 490

“Airports see more sincere kisses than wedding halls. The walls of hospitals have heard more prayers than the walls of churches” - Unknown

Prayer is the most private and personal form of conversation with God. Some people pray daily, other people pray occasionally, and some people just pray when they need something most. But regardless of how often you pray or what specifically you pray about, the only person who knows whether your prayers “work” or not, is you. I use the term “work” loosely however, because here’s the thing: prayers are not simply wishes that magically come true. I don’t think of my prayers being answered by God as if there were some magic genie in a bottle granting my wishes, I just have a hard time believing that praying works like that. I think about some of the things I have prayed for in the past, and I am challenged to come up with an experience when my prayer was simply answered with the arrival of the solution I had asked for. My grandmother’s brain tumor didn’t shrink, my cousin’s Schizophrenia didn’t go away, nor did my friend’s immune system start working again. Those prayers were never answered. But that doesn’t make me believe in God any less, or question my faith any more; I just don’t think that’s what prayers are truly meant for, I don’t believe that’s how they work.

Prayer is certainly a powerful thing. How many stories and witnesses have we heard about people whose prayers have “come true” – of the unloved finding help, the fearful finding rest, and the sick becoming healed? It’s undeniable that these sorts of miracles have happened. The Bible tells us that Jesus has cleansed the lepers, allowed the deaf to hear, and the blind to see. Our faith tells us that God is all-powerful and that He truly can do anything because he is our Creator. But why then, is not every single prayer that is given to God, granted like wish given to a genie?

I think there are two reasons. First of all, I feel that we humans have a tendency to pray for the wrong things. We pray for world peace. We pray to end world hunger. We pray for a cure for a life-threatening disease. And of course, we want all of these prayers to be answered, but we are just humans, and those things can only be decided by God. Why do we pray for these ambiguous and exceptionally complex things that God has not yet given to humankind? Why pray for these vague outcomes alone, when instead, we could be praying for things that can help humanity reach these goals, such as love for each other, comfort in times of suffering, and relief from pain, or trust in His love and His plan. I don’t believe that a prayer alone can cure a disease. Those who have been “cured through prayer” were cured for a reason; they had something left to do during their life on earth. Certainly, prayer may help with things like the role of one’s mental and spiritual well being when dealing with a disease of this kind, but a prayer alone is not a cure.

Which leads me to my second reason: prayer cannot work as a cure to any disease because God has a plan for each and every one of us. I am a strong believer in the idea that everything happens for a reason. Any illness or injury I have had in past, has happened for a reason, just like anything that happens to me in the future will happen for a reason as well. Being able to pray and change His ultimate course for our lives would mean altering why we were put on this earth in the first place. God has given us so much in this life, most of which we don’t know how to fully appreciate, let alone try to understand and deal with, but it is never without a purpose. A prayer cannot cure a disease when it is necessary in the bigger picture.