There seems to be an urgency when it comes to health care. Perhaps, because of this, more consideration is being given to thought, spirituality, and the powerful connection they have to well-being.

Last year, the American Psychological Association revealed that the use of prayer for health concerns significantly increased from forty-three percent in 2002 to forty-nine percent in 2007.

Many studies have examined the effectiveness of prayer. Most of these studies state that prayer improves health. Some suggest otherwise.

Why the confusion?

If you analyzed the effects of 100 different medications used to treat a specific problem, you wouldnt declare, Medicine does not work! if only one was found to be beneficial for treating the problem. Most likely, you would say, Here is the one that helps.

Just as all medications are not the same, not all prayers are the same.

I wrote in a column two weeks ago: It would be difficult to grasp the complete driving ability of the 2012 Mercedes-Benz C-Class coupe if the test-drivers were fifteen-year-olds from your neighborhood driver education class. Just so, each test subject during a study of prayers ability to heal may not, as yet, be spiritually prepared to apply the full might of divine power. Jesus disciples couldnt always heal as quickly or completely as he did. Yet, the Bible implies that as they gained spiritual maturity some were able to perform many substantial cures.

Utilizing prayer under all circumstances is not always an easy task. After I married my wife, Joanne, and whenever I got the hiccups, a race for relief would break out between my prayer and her home-remedy of a spoonful of jelly. If I couldn't make the hiccups disappear through prayer before Joanne arrived with her spoon, I was supposed to swallow the sugary solution.

However, absolutely every time, prayer won out. Praying caused the hiccups to completely stop before Joanne could dash to the kitchen and return with the jelly.

I don't know if you have ever tried praying while under pressure, but it took a concerted effort to keep my thought on the divine power to bring relief while hearing Joanne's shoes on the tile floor as she ran to the kitchen.

Excerpt from:

Race to Health Opens Door for Spirituality