Praying for the Critically Ill

Rodney Bowes

Loma Linda Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

The Prayer of Faith

And I did just get back from Japan, so if I look a little bit tired, it's because I'm on the other side of the world.

God has really blessed and I'm so glad that I could be here.

This morning, or this afternoon, we want to look at a few very important things.

So I want first to focus on some statistics.

I found these very, very interesting as I was looking through these.

You know, the state of religion in the United States of America is very interesting.

We have seen religion on the decline, but did you know people are still very interested in their spiritual health, especially when it comes to how they interact with those who provide health care.

75% of Americans perceive religion as important.

This was a Gallup poll that was done very recently, so that number might surprise you as it did me.

75% of Americans perceive religion as important, and yet a small percentage report that a doctor has talked with them about their spiritual faith as a factor in their physical health.

So a lot of people realize that religion is important, but very few of them are finding their health care provider actually integrating that component there.

That's another interesting question, isn't it?

I mean, there's a lot of people who believe that it's important, but do they really want someone else to address them on the issue?

The research continues on, and nearly 70% stated that they would trust their physician more if they discussed their religious faith.

Those who show that they're interested definitely would like that interaction.

94% of patients for whom spirituality was important wish their physicians would include spirituality.

Often there seems to be a big chasm between the 2, isn't that right?

But people are actually looking forward to it.

You know, I do some volunteer work over at the SAC clinic.

I'm the volunteer chaplain, 1 of the many volunteer chaplains that are there, and we find that people are very open when they know that that service is available.

People really appreciate this kind of dialogue.

Here's something that I also found quite remarkable.

50% of patients for whom spirituality was not important felt that doctors would or should at least inquire about spiritual beliefs in cases of serious illness.

As we all know, you know, when people come to critical situations in life, they might be atheists, they might be whatever, but when their back is against the wall, when they're in the trenches, so to speak, and the bullets are flying, people say, there is a God.

I mean, when people's back are against the wall, they say, yes, I believe.

We're going to look at a few very interesting statements that are going to help us very much.

But as we look at the literature and as we specifically focus on the Mayo Clinic, if you look at their webpage, they have a little section there about the benefits of meditation.

And I would like to include prayer in that as well.

Prayer and meditation have a lot of benefits.

Let's look at some of the things that it has been shown to help with.

Anxiety disorders, asthma, cancer, depression, heart disease, high blood pressure, pain and sleep problems.

And if you consider why many people are coming to the hospitals, Certainly 1 of those things is 1 of the reasons that they're there, isn't that right?

You know, as was mentioned, I do a lot of health education around the world with the ministries that I work with and still we see that heart disease, cancer, diabetes, these chronic diseases are what's causing so much pain and suffering in the world.

And so these people are specifically open to the benefits of prayer.

It's a little bit older but in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.

They believe that there is something there, something that is outside of themselves or what they can get in a traditional way.

They believe that prayer is very, very important.

82% said pain pills, 76% said prayer was important.

Now, how many of you have read Roger Morneau's books?

Roger Morneau, fascinating books, absolutely amazing.

If you have a chance, I encourage you to get this book.

It's actually part of a series of books that Roger Morneau wrote.

And in the book, More Incredible Answers to Prayer, there's a whole chapter that talk about prayer in regard to miraculous healings.

And I'd like to share just a few of those real life situations with you.

He had a lot of different health challenges throughout his life, but later on in life, he was coming to a real crisis point.

He was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, very serious diagnosis, and he had this prayer.

You can read the full prayer in his book, but there's a few things in this prayer that I'm going to come back to in just a few minutes as we look at the prayer of faith.

He said in his prayer, you know Lord that I am not afraid to die.

I am not trying to tell you what to do or how to do it.

If it is your will, let your great power of life permeate my being so that when the surgeon operates, he will find no tumor or cancer present." He prayed this prayer 3 weeks before he was to go in for this operation.

When the surgeon looked and they went through the procedure, what do you think happened?

The surgeon came back and was absolutely amazed and said, I don't know how to explain it, but you have no cancer.

And what's interesting, there's a key phrase here.

If it is your will, Very key point when it comes to prayer.

Praying according to God's plan and accepting his will is very important.

Let's look at a few more cases again in the book that Roger Mourneau wrote.

I tell you this man was a prayer warrior.

When I consider mine and I consider you know my wife and I have a daily prayer journal.

But he would pray for these 700 people on a regular basis.

You know, he had retired and he said, the only thing I want to do is pray for other people.

And so His life was permeated with prayer.

And when you read the stories, it was not just physical healing that happened when he was praying.

He tells 1 story of when he was sitting in a car and there was a couple arguing in the car next to him.

They were just going at it and he prayed and all of a sudden it was just like something happened, a hammer came down or something.

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The Prayer of Faith

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