So… I ask questions, and try to make some sense of it all. Instead, I just come up with more questions.

Sometimes I have thought that maybe prayer is simply a way we can have peace with whatever we are facing, rather than receiving answers. But some people have told me that idea doesn’t really work, especially when faced with real tragedy, such as a dying child.

I have also had “timing” experiences, but like you say, who knows? Then again I can’t stop believing that there is a God that cares…so I just don’t know.

Thanks for the comment…

People keep preaching this because “it’s in the Bible”, and even more importantly (according to the Bible), “Jesus said it”… Questioning either is considered heresy.

Besides, it sounds good to be able to tell people that there is a magical answer for all of their problems.

Personally, there have been a few times where it “felt” like God was answering a prayer (sort of) because of the timing of what happened. Honestly though, it could just have been random chance. How do you tell the difference?

We can’t get around the fact that the Bible reports Jesus as saying that whatever we ask for in prayer, if we believe, we will receive it. We are also told that if two of us agree on earth on a matter, God will do it for us. Then there’s the matter of moving mountains (and there’s no indication that Jesus didn’t mean it literally) if we have even the smallest amount of faith. So where is the evidence for it? The outcomes from prayer have been shown to be statistically identical to those of random chance. So the facts actually contradict the Bible here.

I don’t think our interpretation of the text is wrong, as the meaning is pretty clear and not open to misinterpretation unless you go down all sorts of convoluted twisting of the meaning. So why do people insist on preaching this stuff when experience shows that it simply isn’t true? It’s been shown that we all have selective memories, and we tend to remember the things that confirm (or seem to confirm) our own biases and prejudices. So if someone believes that prayer works because they’ve been taught it all their life, it’s easy for them to remember the 2 or 3 times their prayers seemed to be answered, and forget the 500 or more times their prayers were seemingly ignored.

So is prayer “powerful and effective” as the Bible tells us? In a word, I think the evidence before our eyes shows that the answer must be a resounding “No”.

After I posted this, I was thinking a bit more, and realized that for most Christians, prayer is much like buying a lottery ticket. You pick your numbers, and hope you will win. Most of the time you don’t, and once in a while you might win one of the smaller “prizes”, maybe $5 or something. But, you always know that you might win, and the lotteries always let you know about the people who do win the big prize.

Seems to me that prayers can be much the same. You try to say the right prayers, have the right attitude, follow the right formula. You hope (or believe) that you will get the answer you need. Most of the time you don’t… Once in a while, you get what looks to be an answer (sort of), but not what you really expected or needed. Still, the proponents of prayer are always quick to mention all of those people who did get the answers they needed. That just reminds you that maybe sometime you will get the answer you need… maybe.

So, everybody keeps “believing” in the prayer Lottery.

As far as the attitude your friend has – that sometimes the answer is “no” – doesn’t make sense to me either if we try to believe the common interpretation of what Jesus said about prayer. Jesus did NOT say, “ask for whatever you desire, and it will be given to you, unless we decide to say NO…”

I agree with you that maybe our thinking about prayer needs to change.