Prayer

Last night I watched the State of the Union address with some friends from my Church here in Austin. It was a good speech, but surprisingly, after the speech we got very off topic and started talking science and CERN and what effect the observer has on the observation. Quantum physics and Schrodinger's Cat etc. But eventually we got to prayer.

Prayer is one of those things that I don't really understand.

What does prayer do. What is the purpose of it? Is prayer a way that we can change God's mind? What does God do when two people are praying for completely opposite things? (like a football game - something inconsequential, yet whose prayer does God answer? If our team wins is that an answer to our prayer? If our team loses does that mean we don't have enough faith - I know this example is silly, but the question is still valid) Is prayer a way that we can affect the will of God? What happens when people die, even though we prayed for them? What happens when we don't see what we have been praying for? Or is prayer simply a comfort for us and it does nothing in the supernatural world? Prayer is simply a way for us to feel better, perhaps? If so, what is the point? Perhaps going and reading a good book will make us feel better, just the same.

I have experiences in my life where things have changed after I prayed - perhaps the change was only in me and my expectations then caused the change in my physical reality.

Here is an experience I just remembered, which doesn't quite fit that explanation. When I was in college I used to lead a Prayer group. We were very small, just usually two or three. One night, I was waiting by myself for the others to show up. I prayed that God would bring just one person that we hadn't invited. One new person. As soon as we were about to get started a girl I had never seen before came into the chapel asking if we were the ones praying. She had seen a flyer somewhere on campus. None of us had ever spoken to her. I know that her presence was an answer to that prayer. Perhaps she would have come anyway - but I know that God heard me. Maybe that was just a coincidence - but I can't believe in coincidences like that.

I don't know the purpose of prayer or how it works, but I do know that I don't use it often enough.