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Studies about prayer
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“Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications!
In Your faithfulness answer me, and in Your righteousness.”
Psalm 143:1
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Supporting Dr. Dossey’s research is Dr. Herbert Benson, a professor at
Harvard Medical School who reports that through prayer you can actually
change the way your body works, triggering a specific set of
physiological changes. “If prayer were a drug we wouldn’t be able to
make it fast enough,” Benson further notes.
One recent study found that consistent praying actually has the power to
lower the heart rate, slow respiration and brain wave activity, reduce
blood pressure, relieve anxiety and in some cases even help patients
avoid surgery.
Another study in Maryland of 100,000 regular churchgoers found that they
had fifty percent fewer deaths from coronary artery disease as well as
fifty-six percent fewer emphysema deaths.
A recent Gallup poll measuring the degree of people’s happiness found
that more than half the people surveyed who read the Bible daily or
weekly and attended church regularly said they were very happy.
And you can also add a longer life span to the list of benefits for
those who pray and attend church services regularly. That’s the finding
of two decades worth of research conducted by the National Institute for
Health Care Research (NIHR) which tested for a correlation between
religious activity and longevity. “People who actively participate in
religious activities like going to church regularly, tend to live
longer,” said Dr. David B. Larson, president of NIHR. “It’s about 30
percent more for men and 60 percent for women,” he added. Interestingly,
it didn’t seem to matter which denomination the subjects went to.
A study of the success rate of drug treatment centers in Texas has shown
that 45 percent of patients in religious drug treatment centers were
able to successfully break their drug habit, compared to a meager five
percent success rate in secular, state run centers.
Yes, there is great power in prayer. This was reaffirmed by the words of
Yahshua (Jesus) when He said:
“Have faith in God
for assuredly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed
and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes
those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe
that you receive them, and you will have them.”
(Mark 11: 22-24)
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