I am on several lists of old friends and professional groups. Sometimes one of the members will post a prayer need on a list and ask for prayers. That is a good thing in many ways but sometimes I fail to take the request seriously enough to stop and focus on that person. I am trying to improve in that regard because I know that prayer can have a very positive effect on a patient.
Notice I did not promise that every patient for whom we pray gets cured. In reality, many people die even with prayer. As one of my favorite writers says, "Mortality is 100% all over the world". Yes, everyone dies and some sooner and some later than others. But as a rule, prayers, even at a distance, do make a positive difference in the patient's quality and sometimes the quantity of life they live.
I was most recently reminded of this when a former high school friend wrote to alert us to the fact that a little six year old girl was very ill with cancer. The chemo was working in some ways but its side effects were also close to killing her. The chemo treatment is so strong that it could take the child's life.
That often happens in the case of cancer and can happen also with heart disease and other serious maladies. One of the best things about prayer is the total lack of bad side effects. With God we always get the good with no bad.
I vowed to pray for this little child, Miriam, each time I saw a posting from my high school list. That may be hard to do because some days we get a lot of postings. But here goes for now. "Dear God our heavenly Father, pour out your health and blessings on Miriam today. Protect her from the chemo side effects and reduce her tumors. In the Name of the Great Physician, Jesus. Amen."
See my blog post on distance prayer research.
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