ODJ: imperfect prayer studies
July 29, 2011
When He heard this, He sighed deeply in His spirit and said, “Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, I will not give this generation any such sign” (v.12).
READ: Mark 8:11-21
A 1988 study by Dr. Randolph Byrd found coronary care patients were 11 percent more likely to recover when they had received the prayers of others. A 2006 study led by Dr. Herbert Benson suggested there was no improvement for patients at all. A more recent study (September 2010) by Candy Gunther Brown at Indiana University reported significantly positive results for hearing and vision-impaired Mozambicans after they had received intercessory prayer.
I find such studies interesting, but—in my eyes—many of them have deep methodological problems. Some studies have used multi-faith pray-ers, so which “God” is being prayed to? Most have looked for a direct cause-and-effect result, so where does God’s will come into the equation? Frankly, I really don’t think God appreciates being part of lab experiments.
Jesus raises another concern about empirical approaches to the miraculous. Some Pharisees once demanded that Jesus perform a miracle to prove who He was. Actually, he’d already healed a demon-possessed girl (Mark 7:24-30) and a deaf man (7:31-37), and He had just miraculously fed 4,000 people (8:1-10) and 5,000 before that (6:30-44)—miracles the Pharisees had either seen or heard about. But these were not good enough. Jesus sighed deeply and declined their request (8:12).
He refused to perform miracles on demand. He wouldn’t give signs to those He knew still wouldn’t believe. Jesus wouldn’t do wonders for closed or merely inquisitive minds. His miraculous acts were done out of compassion (8:2) to the desperate (7:26), the believing (5:27-28), and even the doubtful (9:24-27), but never for the merely curious.
Prayer works! But it’s all about praying to the one true God in submission to His sovereign will. —Sheridan Voysey
Some prayer studies focus on the human act of prayer rather than the deity being prayed to. Why is this wrong?
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