James 5:16 · Subject · Prayer
Prayer and the Mind
Twelve published studies measured the sick who were prayed for and the people who pray, from 1988 to 2016.
Heart patients who were told that strangers were praying for them had more complications than those left unsure.
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.
- Books
- James, 2 Corinthians, Matthew
- Hold in memory
- 1 John 5:14
Summary
Scripture commands prayer and grounds it in God, who hears and answers according to His will. Researchers have tested prayer in two ways: trials in which strangers prayed for the sick, and studies of people who pray for themselves and others. Each study measures a narrow thing in a particular group. None of them shows that God hears prayer or that He does not.
- The trials of prayer for the sick by strangers gave mixed results, and a Cochrane review of ten trials found no clear effect on death.
- The trials measured prayer offered by strangers for patients they never met, and none of them measured the prayers of the sick themselves.
- Observational studies link frequent private prayer with less depression and anxiety, and they cannot show which causes which.
- In two experiments, people assigned to pray for a romantic partner or a friend reported greater willingness to forgive.
Scripture Before the Studies
Scripture names prayer for the sick long before any laboratory measured it.
Prayer and the Mind sets the published research on prayer beside what Scripture teaches of it, for the reader who asks what the studies of prayer have found.
The question this study answers is what the research has found about prayer for the sick and about the mind of the one who prays, and what it cannot show. It gives the studies one by one, the trials as they reported, the work on private prayer and the limits of each.
Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.The letter puts the sick under the care of the church's elders, the setting the trials of intercessory prayer later tried to measure.
Twelve Studies Side by Side
Five of the twelve studies are randomised trials, three are reviews and four are experiments and imaging studies of people who pray.
The twelve studies differ in design and strength, from a laboratory task to a review of ten trials.
| Study | Design and sample | Finding | What it cannot show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Byrd, Southern Medical Journal, 1988 | Randomised double-blind trial of 393 coronary care patients | The prayed-for group had lower severity scores | A cause; patients beyond one coronary care unit |
| Harris and others, Archives of Internal Medicine, 1999 | Randomised double-blind trial of 990 coronary care patients | Lower course scores; "Lengths of CCU and hospital stays were not different" | An effect on how long patients stayed |
| Bernardi and others, BMJ, 2001 | Comparison in 23 healthy adults of the Ave Maria and a yoga mantra | Both raised cardiovascular rhythms when recited six times a minute | An effect of prayer apart from the rate of breathing |
| Krucoff and others (MANTRA II), Lancet, 2005 | Randomised factorial trial of 748 heart patients in nine centres | "No significant difference was found for the primary composite endpoint" | Anything about the prayers of the sick themselves |
| Benson and others (STEP), American Heart Journal, 2006 | Randomised trial of 1,802 bypass patients at six hospitals in three groups | Complications 52% with prayer and 51% without; 59% in those told they were prayed for | Why the group told of prayer fared worse |
| Roberts, Ahmed, Hall and Davison, Cochrane review, 2009 | Systematic review of ten randomised trials with 7,646 patients | No clear effect on death, general clinical state or readmission | A judgment on any single prayer |
| Hollywell and Walker, Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2009 | Systematic review of qualitative and correlational studies | Frequent private prayer usually went with lower depression and anxiety | A cause; most samples came from strong Christian settings |
| Schjoedt and others, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2009 | Brain imaging of Danish Christians; the abstract gives no count | Improvised prayer engaged areas of the brain used in social thinking | Whether anyone hears the prayer |
| Boelens, Reeves, Replogle and Koenig, International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 2009 | Crossover trial of adults with depression or anxiety, 95% women; the abstract gives no count | Depression and anxiety improved and stayed improved a month later; cortisol did not change | A blinded comparison, or the effect of company apart from prayer |
| Lambert and others, Psychological Science, 2010 | Two experiments with 52 and 67 participants | Praying for a partner or friend went with greater willingness to forgive | Effects beyond self-report in its samples |
| Friese and others, Consciousness and Cognition, 2014 | Laboratory experiment; the abstract gives no count | After a draining task, brief prayer protected performance on a Stroop test | Effects outside one short task |
| Anderson and Nunnelley, Postgraduate Medicine, 2016 | Review of 41 observational studies | Private prayer went with less depression, and with no effect on physical health or blood pressure | A cause, which the authors say needs controlled trials |
Hollywell and Walker, Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2009, Schjoedt and others, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2009, Boelens, Reeves, Replogle and Koenig, International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 2009, Lambert and others, Psychological Science, 2010, Friese and others, Consciousness and Cognition, 2014, Anderson and Nunnelley, Postgraduate Medicine, 2016
Trials of Prayer for the Sick
Four trials assigned heart patients at random to be prayed for by people they never met.
Byrd's patients received prayer "by participating Christians praying outside the hospital", and he concluded that the data "suggest that intercessory prayer to the Judeo-Christian God has a beneficial therapeutic effect".
In the trial of Harris and colleagues, the first names of the patients were given to outside intercessors who prayed for them daily for four weeks. The patients did not know they were prayed for, and the intercessors never met them.
In MANTRA II the prayer came from "established congregations of various religions", and the authors concluded that "Neither masked prayer nor MIT therapy significantly improved clinical outcome".
The STEP trial asked whether prayer itself or the knowledge of being prayed for made a difference after bypass surgery. Its authors concluded that "Intercessory prayer itself had no effect on complication-free recovery", while certainty of receiving it "was associated with a higher incidence of complications".
The Pooled Verdict
Four authors pooled the randomised trials and weighed what they showed.
Roberts, Ahmed, Hall and Davison included any randomised trial of "personal, focused, committed and organised intercessory prayer" offered by people who believed they were praying to God or a god.
They wrote that "the evidence does not support a recommendation either in favour or against the use of intercessory prayer".
Private Prayer and the Mind
Two reviews of private prayer and one trial of prayer given in person looked at depression and anxiety.
Hollywell and Walker found that "Devotional prayers involving an intimate dialogue with a supportive God appear to be associated with improved optimism, wellbeing and function". They added that patients who lack faith and whose prayers are "desperate pleas for help" are likely to need more support.
Anderson and Nunnelley defined private prayer as "individuals praying for themselves", and they called for "Controlled clinical trials" to test what the observational studies suggest.
In the trial of Boelens, Reeves, Replogle and Koenig the prayer was "direct contact person-to-person prayer", given in six weekly sessions of an hour.
Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. SelahThis psalm grounds the open speech to God that the reviews call devotional prayer in trust in God as a refuge.
What Prayer Does in the One Who Prays
Four studies of people at prayer measured the brain, forgiveness, self-control and the rhythm of the heart.
Schjoedt and colleagues argued from their images that "praying to God is an intersubjective experience comparable to 'normal' interpersonal interaction".
In the second of the studies of Lambert's team, "selfless concern" grew in those who prayed for a friend every day for four weeks, and it carried the effect on forgiveness.
Friese and colleagues measured the effect on a Stroop test, a task "devoid of any religious or moral associations". Bernardi's group found the same rise in heart rhythms from a prayer and from a mantra, and they credited it to "Rhythm formulas that involve breathing at six breaths per minute".
And when you pray, do not babble on like pagans, for they think that by their many words they will be heard. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.Jesus ties prayer to the Father who already knows the need, so Scripture asks for trust in prayer more than for many words.
What the Research Cannot Show
The studies measure groups of people, and Scripture places the answer to prayer in God's will.
The trials measure groups of patients, the prayers of strangers and outcomes taken from hospital charts. They cannot show whether God heard a given prayer. The Cochrane authors set aside a wider question, whether such trials could help prove or disprove the existence of God, as "a philosophical question lying outside the scope of this review".
Do not test the LORD your God as you tested Him at Massah.Moses forbade putting the LORD to the test, the command Jesus answered with when He refused to force God's hand (Matthew 4:7).
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.Paul's own request stands in Scripture as a prayer refused, so no refusal can be read as proof that God did not hear.
And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.John ties the confidence of prayer to God's will, which no trial of outcomes can measure.
The studies of thanksgiving and anxiety, with Philippians 4:6 to 7, have their own page.
Voices on Prayer Refused
Matthew Henry and the Commentary on Paul's Epistles of Ambrosiaster read the apostle's three requests.
died 384 · Ambrosiaster
Ambrosiaster stands here for the reason a request can be refused.
“Although he asked three times, his request was not granted. It is not that he was disregarded but that he was making a plea which was against his own best interests.”
Ambrosiaster · Commentary on Paul's Epistles · on 2 Corinthians 12:8Patristic
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Matthew Henry stands here for the answer that replaced the thing asked.
Read the page on Matthew Henry
“Christ himself prayed to his Father thrice. As troubles are sent to teach us to pray, so they are continued to teach us to continue instant in prayer. We have an account of the answer given to the apostle's prayer, that, although the trouble was not removed, yet an equivalent should be granted: My grace is sufficient for thee.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on 2 Corinthians 12:8Puritan
Can Trials Measure Prayer?
Researchers disagree on what the trials found and on whether more should be run.
Byrd and the team of Harris read their results as evidence of a benefit, and Harris wrote that "prayer may be an effective adjunct to standard medical care".
The Cochrane authors were "not convinced that further trials of this intervention should be undertaken". Their own summary grants that "some of the results of individual studies suggest a positive effect of intercessory prayer".
Yet Yours Be Done
Jesus prayed in the garden for the cup to pass and yielded to His Father's will.
And He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, where He knelt down and prayed, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.”The prayer of Jesus asks and yields at once, the pattern Scripture sets over every request.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- R. C. Byrd, Positive therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer in a coronary care unit population, Southern Medical Journal 81, no. 7 (1988): 826 to 829.
- W. S. Harris and others, A randomized, controlled trial of the effects of remote, intercessory prayer on outcomes in patients admitted to the coronary care unit, Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 19 (1999): 2273 to 2278.
- L. Bernardi and others, Effect of rosary prayer and yoga mantras on autonomic cardiovascular rhythms: comparative study, BMJ 323, no. 7327 (2001): 1446 to 1449.
- M. W. Krucoff and others, Music, imagery, touch, and prayer as adjuncts to interventional cardiac care: the MANTRA II randomised study, Lancet 366, no. 9481 (2005): 211 to 217.
- H. Benson and others, Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients, American Heart Journal 151, no. 4 (2006): 934 to 942.
- L. Roberts, I. Ahmed, S. Hall and A. Davison, Intercessory prayer for the alleviation of ill health, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2009), no. 2: CD000368.
- C. Hollywell and J. Walker, Private prayer as a suitable intervention for hospitalised patients: a critical review of the literature, Journal of Clinical Nursing 18, no. 5 (2009): 637 to 651.
- U. Schjoedt and others, Highly religious participants recruit areas of social cognition in personal prayer, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 4, no. 2 (2009): 199 to 207.
- P. A. Boelens, R. R. Reeves, W. H. Replogle and H. G. Koenig, A randomized trial of the effect of prayer on depression and anxiety, International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine 39, no. 4 (2009): 377 to 392.
- N. M. Lambert and others, Motivating change in relationships: can prayer increase forgiveness?, Psychological Science 21, no. 1 (2010): 126 to 132.
- M. Friese and others, Personal prayer counteracts self-control depletion, Consciousness and Cognition 29 (2014): 90 to 95.
- J. W. Anderson and P. A. Nunnelley, Private prayer associations with depression, anxiety and other health conditions: an analytical review of clinical studies, Postgraduate Medicine 128, no. 7 (2016): 635 to 641.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on 2 Corinthians 12:8.
- Ambrosiaster, Commentary on Paul's Epistles, on 2 Corinthians 12:8.
Keep Studying
In this value4
People and groups5