If anyone of you ARE sick? You should call the Pastor of UOUR Church to pray over YOU and anoint you with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well, the Lord will raise him up. If he had sinned he will be forgiven.
Recently some scientist did an experiment to see if prayer had any effect on the sick. They had two groups of people, one for people who prayed, and one for people did not pray, and they found out that both groups recovered (or not) at the same rate. From that they concluded their prayer has no effect on illness.

I am not surprised.

For an experiment to be scientific, you have to test for one thing at a time. For example, if you are baking a cake, and you want to see what makes it moister, you have to change the amount of only one ingredients of the time. If you change the amount of two ingredients is at the same time, you won't know which one had the effect of making it moister or drier, or if they canceled each other out.
In the prayer experiment, they didn't test for one thing at a time. They made no distinctions based on religion, orthodoxy, or piety. For example, they didn't test to see if people recovered faster if nuns pray for them or if Amish men in beards pray for them. They didn't test the difference between pastors and lay people. They didn't test to see if Christians got better results than atheists. They assumed that the person who prays and that persons purity, orthodoxy, and religion are not factors. I am not saying they are, only that they didn't test it.
What people forget to take into consideration, God may have reasons for not answering a prayer or for delaying the healing process in a certain person. Maybe it is to give the person's relatives an opportunity to care for the ill person, maybe it is to give the sick person time to rest, maybe it is to keep the person in bed because otherwise something worse would have. Or maybe it is because, if God answered the prayer right away, the people who pray who would become grandiose about what great stuff they are that God answered their prayer right away.
Many of you may remember a hit CD from a few years ago by Garth Brooks,it was titled "Unanswered Prayers). The song tells the story of a young man who prays to God that his present girlfriend will love him as much as he loves her and they should remain together forever. However! He believes after his girlfriend left him that his prayers to God had gone unanswered. Years later at a football game this young man and his wife chanced to see the old girlfriend. In the presence of these two women his mind recalled his prayers to God so many years ago. So did he hurt of being ignored by God.
He remembered his feelings long ago that he could not live without her and how hard he prayed to God that she would fall in love with him and feel the same love for him as he felt for her. As he stands there in these two ladies presence he realizes that he now loves his wife more than he evered loved the old girlfriend. God provided a woman more suitable for him. There are no doubts of her love. He is happier with her that he ever could have been with the old sweetheart. With tears in his eye he decided to say another pray. A thankful pray to God for an "Unanswered Prayers".
God knows what is best for us and sometimes leaving prayers unanswered is the right decision to be made.

Basically, what it comes down to; Does prayer actually work? I say technically, "NO". Prayer is a request; God knows what is best for us over the entire course of our lives.
God wants us to be happy and excell during our time on earth.
Jesus from the Cross said, "He would never abandomn us."
We cannot assume God does not listen to us or loves us enough to care about the problems we encounter in our daily lives when our prayers go unanswered.

Remember, all that God has given us, such as life. We do not deserve everything we ask for and God knows what is best for us.

It is called faith and trust in God and believing in Him so strongly that you place your life in His hands.