Yes, it does!

I had some great responses to my last post about whether or not prayer changes things. I am in complete agreement with some of the people who left comments -- thanks to each one, even to those who have opinions that differ from my own.

I believe without a doubt that prayer can change things. I also believe that God has a plan and a will for our lives and He already knows what is going to happen in every person's life. I think my friend Strawberry was exactly right when she said, "there isn't a person on this earth that can comprehend God's overall purpose. We see one very small piece of the puzzle, but God sees the entire picture."

There are so many examples in the Bible to support the power of prayer that I could probably make this post so long, you would never finish reading it (see James 5:13-16). Here is a shortened version of a very long story from my personal life. When my husband and I were a young married couple, he had already been diagnosed with a muscle disease and it began to cause him some serious problems. He lost his strength, he lost weight, his physical features changed and he was having fevers every day. He went downhill so much that by our first child's first Christmas, my mother feared that he wouldn't live to see another Christmas. He wasn't even able to bend down and put on his socks and shoes -- for many months I was having to put his socks and shoes on him. He went through a lot and it wasn't looking like there was much hope for him. Some men from our church came to him and prayed for him and followed the scripture in James that I mentioned above. It didn't happen immediately, but during the next few months he started improving and he got better and better, and eventually was even able to stop taking the medication he'd been on for years. That was nearly 25 years ago and to this day he has not had to go back on medication and he has been able to carry on a normal life and work a normal job and be a wonderful husband and father. The medicines had no power to heal this disease because there was no cure -- they mainly just treated the symptoms. I give all credit for these changes to God Almighty, Creator of the universe. We had no power over this terrible disease -- all we could do was what the doctors told us........and pray. I am 100% convinced that God heard our prayers and the prayers of some righteous men and He changed a very serious condition.

...The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:16