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I didn’t attend the priesthood session (’cause I’m a lady ), but I did just watch Elder Oaks’ talk on lds.org. I’ve been thinking a lot about your post because it raises important questions: Why do we pray for the sick, and do our prayers really do anything?

First, I don’t think you missed too much by missing the beginning of the talk. It was a bit confusing at first. I think Elder Oaks was trying to provide context in the beginning and he got more to the point toward the end. He seemed to be saying, in order for a healing prayer to work, the priesthood holder and particularly the person being blessed must have faith. The words of the prayer do not matter, faith matters. He also says that even if all participants are faithful, their desires may not come to pass – the person may remain sick, or even die. “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This is what you picked up on too.

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What I missed was: then why do we bother? My thought is that the bothering and putting forth prayers and fasting and all we go through to plead and beg from God is really for our own benefit and maybe to show God that we care and are willing to put some effort into getting what we want. Or, maybe it’s like a little test for us to see if we can tap into what God’s will really is in a certain situation.

I pray for the sick or for others experiencing hardship because I feel like it matters to everyone involved. It matters to me because I feel like I can do something about a situation that is out of my control otherwise. It matters to the sick person because it shows that I care about them. Also, I believe that it will help them in some way, even if they don’t get better. My non-religious mom calls it “putting good thoughts out into the universe.” It matters to God because it shows Him that His children care about each other – as they should. I feel that God would want to know about how upset I am, or frustrated that this is happening, or angry, or hopeful. I feel that God cares deeply about our desires and he can comfort us even when we don’t get what we want. (As an aside, I don’t think that our faithfulness matters in getting what we want – God doesn’t work on a tit for tat basis.)

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Then I thought about how little kids beg and plead and stomp and fuss for something that we know they don’t need or shouldn’t have. But sometimes they ask in all the right ways, they show us how they’ve earned this thing and why they deserve it. Still, if we as parents feel it would NOT be in their best interest, we deny their request. But there are many times when it really doesn’t matter to parents, and we’ll go ahead and grant their request when they’ve asked in a good way and seem sincere. So, maybe it wasn’t something we would have considered, but now that they’ve asked us so nicely, it’s our will that they be happy and are rewarded for their good efforts. Maybe God is like that. Thoughts?

I don’t know if it’s fair to compare God to human parents because He is more and knows more than human parents can. I also don’t think He views us as children throwing a tantrum. I think he can see beyond that. He understands why we are asking for things, why we are hurting, why we want certain things to happen. So I think that He does that our prayers into account, but I don’t know if they have any effect on the outcome. It is like things happen because they happen – and no matter what happens, God cares about everyone’s desires, prayers, hopes and disappointments (regardless of if the person is religious, faithful or not). Or at least that’s how I see things… but I don’t claim to know much.

*Also, in case this all seems glib, I’ve been thinking about these things a lot since my dad was diagnosed with an extremely rare autoimmune disease less than a year ago. He’s been in an out of the hospital a lot with complications and the disease is so rare that there aren’t any drugs to treat it other than steriods which cause their own problems. And so I’ve been asking myself: does it really matter to God if I pray for my dad? Will my prayers make a difference? And so my reply above is what I’ve worked out in the last 7 months.

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