Basic HTML Version
.
The Avvesome
Povver of Prayer
ls there real/y a God who answers prayer?
Why are
so many
prayers unanswered?
H
ENRY
w
AS
crushed by a huge
bulldozer one day last au–
tumn. Seven ribs were bro–
ken. His lungs were seriously
damaged. His pelvic bone and hip
were smashed. Doctors who examined
him gave up hope the boy would
live.
" It
would take a miracle," the
medica! professionals declared.
But Henry's mother was a woman
who really believed in prayer. She
prayed and asked others to do so as
well. Today, Henry has left that hos–
pital bed, gone home, is able to
walk, and is well on the road to re–
covery.
Was Henry's recovery due to an–
swered prayer? Or was
it
coinci–
dence? Henry's mother is convinced
she knows the answer. But a skeptic
might ask, "What about all the
thousands of prayers that are not
answered?"
There are two sides to the prayer
question. There are millions of
people who pray regularly to a Su–
preme Being, but who admit their
prayers are not answered directly.
They pray for the inner comfort
it
seems to give them.
1 recently interviewed a noted
psychiatrist who has counseled hun-
PLAIN TRUTH March 1973
by
William
F.
Dankenbring
dreds of patients, including theolo–
gians and high-ranking church
officials. They had come to him be–
cause of serious problems in their
lives. Prayer had not helped, so they
had turned to psychiatry for insight
and help.
This psychiatrist, unlike a number
of his colleagues, believes in prayer.
He believes in an Almighty God
who can change circumstances and
intervene in people's problems. But
for most people, prayer
is
little short
of a personal matter of emotional
relief. "Prayer," he suggested, "for
most people, simply helps them get
problems off their chest which they
have bottled up inside of them."
This psychiatrist himself claimed
that sometimes prayers are an–
swered in a direct, supernatural way
- in a manner that seems to belie
rational human explanation.
What, then. is the real truth about
prayer? Is there a seldom realized,
awesome power in prayer? If so,
what kind of prayer really achieves
dynamic results?
A Living Example
A young lad, Richard Brian, was
playing in his house not long ago.
As he was running from one room
to another, he slipped in a puddle of
water, which hadn't yet been
cleaned up, on the kitchen fioor. He
struck his head and was knocked
unconscious. His mother, hearing
him fall, ran to him and tried to re–
vive him, but her attempts went for
naught. Extremely excited, she
rushed out into the alley near their
home and summoned help from a
policeman who happened to be
in
the area. She told lüm her story of
what had happened. He then ran to
the house, leaping over a small
fence standing
in
the way.
Once inside the house, the po–
liceman tried mouth to mouth re–
suscitation, without success. He
immediately said that the boy
should be taken to the hospital.
At the hospital, the nurses and
doctors in the emergency room feve–
rishly tried to revive Richard. After
an hour of artificial respiration and
heart massage, there was no change
in Richard's condition. His mother
was told that he had died, and the
nurses covered him with a sheet,
asking which mortuary they should
ca
U.
The boy's mother had been fer-
25