If you have lived any length of time on earth, you have heard about and, more importantly, pray. For those of us who attend church and practice our faith, we know prayer doesn’t always stop the storm, but it can calm your heart. Prayer doesn’t always make the problem disappear, but it will change the way you handle it. Prayer is the best weapon against all of life’s trials. Now, pursuant to a recently-released report, we know something else about prayer from the scientific world.
Jim Denison of The Denison Forum reported this week that the Pew Research Center issued a new study showing a growing number of US adults believe religion is gaining influence in American life. Recent news bears this out: Young adults are flooding churches after Charlie Kirk’s assassination; the faith arm of his organization, Turning Point USA, has doubled its church network in the month after his death and gained 200,000 new Christians; there is a resurgence of Gen Z and Millennial men returning to church.
This is great news for our society. Even better, Dr. Lisa Miller, a senior clinical psychologist at Princeton University, reports evidence that individuals who cultivate a healthy spiritual life and maintain a connection to the divine are 80 percent less prone to struggle with addiction, 80 percent less likely to engage in socially destructive behavior, and 60 percent more likely to lead personally fulfilling and socially constructive lives. This is fantastic news!
Scientific studies explain there is a neurological link between prayer; controlled breathing; and the release of serotonin, a neurotransmitter essential for regulating mood, emotional balance, and overall mental health.
In the book How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist, Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman state that engaging in just twelve minutes of prayer and reflection a day improves cognitive skills, helps prevent cognitive decline, and builds neural circuits of compassion for others. All of these are side effects of religion. The best significance is when our religion is a transforming relationship with the living Christ.
What happens when we pray? For one, we grow closer to God; we learn more about God’s character; it shapes us to become more like Jesus; worry is exchanged for peace; heavenly forces are moved; we find strength; we are offered direction for our lives; and our circumstances are changed. All good things!
We can pray with the psalmist, “Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways” (Psalm 119:36–37). And we can renew our commitment to personal holiness, knowing that as we work, God works: “Behold, I long for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life!” (v. 40). The more we seek to be like Christ, the more Jesus will help us be like Him. Our private lives become our public witness.
“God could not love us more than if we had never fallen.” Says Charles Spurgeon. Always pray, entrust and obey. Trust that God will see you through all of life’s storms … and He will.
Debby Efurd is co-founder of Cary John Efurd Ministries of Pittsburg, TX. She has been a contributor to Bound for Life and written numerous articles published in LifeNews, Christian Post and the Baptist Standard, and is the author of Go Tell It! Debby can be contacted at caryjohnefurdinistries@gmail.com. Visit her at the Second Mile blog at https://debbyefurd.com.
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