The Power of Prayer and Miracles

Why do people pray? What do they get out of it? Who are they praying to? Does it work? These are the questions that humans have been asking since the dawn of civilization. It does not matter which religion you belief or belong to. Everyone of them has some form of a prayer. In Buddhism, it may take the form of meditation, or chants.

In Christianity, it may take the form of a list of wishes and beliefs.

In Judaism, it may take the form of commandments.

In Islam, prayers are conducted five times a day facing Mecca.

- April 2020

In time of stress, people need some reassurance that things will turn out OK. Prayer fills that role. It is an admission that we are not in control. There is a higher power who is watching over us. Things do not just happen randomly. The universe has a certain order. The laws of the universe consist of not just physical laws like gravity and Newton's laws of motion...but includes a spiritual realm which we don't understand.

The scriptures contains many such instances which we call miracles. Miracles are happenings that defy logic and scientific explanations. For example, the resurrection of Christ was a miracle. It has never happened before. Yet, there are plenty of first hand and second hand evidence that lead many to the conclusion it was true. Hence the start of a new religion, Christianity, based on that very fact. If there was no resurrection, there would not be this new religion.

Prayer is the method for humans to communicate their wishes to God. There are many forms of prayer. There is a prayer for almost every situation. Prayer to thank God, and prayer to seek guidance, prayer to ask forgiveness and prayer to ask for intervention or help...are just a few different prayers.

The key to understanding prayer or the act of praying, is that it does not matter if the prayer is answered or not. That is not the main benefit. The main benefit is to offer a relief to the person doing the prayer. In other word, the act of prayer acts as a distraction to take the mind off the source of distress what ever that may be. By doing so, you have made that person feel better. It is like lifting the heavy burden place on that person. The realization that he is not alone but a higher power is in control and may carry the load. That is a relief.

The prayer is directed at God. The mere participation in a prayer is an admission on the part of the person that there is a God. That He is supreme and has supernatural powers. That He can do incredible things that is beyond our comprehension. A miracle is not only possible, but it happens everyday. You just have to know what to look for.

To a believer, It does not matter if the prayer is answered or not. The understanding is that God knows best. If it is answered, that's great. If it is not, perhaps God has a greater purpose. It is not for us to understand.

To a non-believer, this is a foreign concept. A non believer would say since the prayer was not answered, it proves there is no God. If the prayer was answered, it would have happened anyway without prayer. It is just a coincident.

What the non believer is missing is the power of prayer itself. The mere act of praying is a healing power in itself. Regardless of the outcome, the person is made to feel better and his faith is what sustained him.

Why do people pray? and why now? In a pandemic like the current coronavirus, most people are fearful of this unknown. The worst part is not knowing the outcome. How long this will last, how bad will it be before we have a cure? How bad our economy will suffer? and How many people will die?

The act of prayer will ease this fear. It will focus our energy on God and his plan for humanity. In our busy lives, we tend to lose sight of what is important. This may be a wakeup call. We just don't know. It does not matter. The mere act of praying makes us feel better. That is why humans pray and they pray extra in bad times.