Praying for Fabrice Muamba: Prayer Is Still Valued In The UK.

I'm not a football fan, not even remotely interested in football and until last Saturday evening I had never even heard of Fabrice Muamba  When I heard about his heart attack on Saturday afternoon I offered a prayer for the Muamba and those close to him.

On Sunday morning at our local Methodist church on of the church youth group surprised our Minister by asking if we could pray during the service for Fabrice Muamba.  Surprised, and I suspect delighted, our Minister lead a prayer for Fabrice duiring the service.

It was reported on the BBC News website on 19th March that Fabrice's family were 'exhorting the country to believe in the power of prayer' and that it was thought that millions were praying for him (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17429779).

I am not seeing this as a sudden outpouring of Christian faith, but I think it does show that deep down inside many people there is still a belief in a God of some kind and a belief that God answers prayer.  There is a belief in some higher power and it see,ms that when we want to help somebody and there is nothing else we can do we will pray for them.

For Christian this is encouraging.  The New Atheists like Richard Dawkins try to promote the idea that they are winning the arguement and that belief in deity is decreasing in this country whereas this outpouring of prayer suggest that deep down people sense, even if they cannot articute it, that there is indeed a God whh hears our prayers and responds to them.