The Healing Power of Prayer

Nothing can increase one’s peace of mind more effectively than prayer. It can heal broken hearts, help one recover from an illness or addiction, and create peace amid sorrow. Clinical data shows that prayer enhances one’s health. It can lower blood pressure, increase wellness, and decrease one’s chances of suffering a heart attack.

We can prayer anytime anywhere. We can pray while we’re showering, driving, waiting for an appointment, resting, and working. We can pray when we’re tired, worried, happy, or sad. We can pray to thank God, to ask Him for advice, and to seek peace. Prayer soothes troubled minds, calms wounded spirits, and eases worried hearts.

If it is God’s will, dying can be cured through the power of prayer. Evil spirits can be cast out. Relationships can be healed.

Fourteen years ago a two-month old baby lay in an isolette in an intensive care unit at a children’s hospital. He was dying from heart failure. Doctors has tried every procedure possible to save little Carrie’s life, but the baby was slipping away. My husband and I were visiting her family, and they asked my husband to pray for the baby. The nurses were excused, curtains were drawn, and the family, my husband and I gathered to offer a final prayer in behalf of the beautiful baby girl. Ken called down the blessings of heaven on Carrie and then told her that she had the choice to live or to return to her Heavenly Father. Immediately, the baby’s color changed from deathly gray to pink. Her tiny legs and arms started to move. We knew Carrie had chosen life.

Right now I have several dear friends who are dying or who are very ill. To find peace amid this great sorrow, I have turned to prayer for comfort and peace. I pray for these dear people throughout the day, asking God to ease their pain—and mine.

Prayer allows me to connect with the Spirit and to feel my Father’s love for others—and for me. I know he loves my five loved ones who are losing their battle with cancer right now. I know He loves my niece who is in serious trouble with schizophrenia. I know He loves my dear child who faces daunting health challenges, my brother-in-law who is grieving the loss of his wife, and my best friend whose husband just lost his job. I know He is aware of our every grief, pain, heartache, and sorrow.

As we see the suffering through the world, we can ask God to make us an instrument of His peace, to teach us what He would have us do. Perhaps we can pray more fervently for those who are suffering. There may be a reputable charity to which we can donate. Maybe we can donate time to help others in our community. God will teach us what we can do to better serve His children if we ask Him.

Jesus tells us, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”

God has great blessings waiting for you and for me. He waits for us to ask. He wants to give us everything that He has. He wants us to live with Him forever. He will show us how to prepare for those blessings. All we need to do is ask.

We worship a God of miracles. Although not all sick or dying are healed, some are. Not all people are blessed with abundance, but God can help us live happily on very little. Some day He will wipe away all of our tears and mend all of our broken hearts. Talk to Him today and ask Him to guide you, to comfort you, to enfold you in the arms of His love.

He will.

“How precious is Your steadfast love, O God! The children of men take refuge and put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.”


© Carol Brown