Personal Prayer in Patients Dealing with Chronic Illness: A Review of the Research Literature

Table 3

Example quotes for each category.

Category	Example quote	Study
Improvement in health and/or state of mind	“When I get pains and soreness—soreness and pain or aches or whatever, I pray to God He relieve it; cast it out of my body…He’s the only one that can heal it.”	Harvey and Silverman 2007 (p. 211) [36]
Disease management and decision-making	“My doctor wanted me to go on medication and I told them that I have to think about it, but I just pray about it…I was scared, but I prayed and asked God for wisdom and knowledge.”	Crane et al., 2000 (p. 536) [33]
Positive contributions for the experience of the disease	“When I came to the hospital, I did a little bit of praying, and then after that, I started believing that I needed to live each day at a time and take advantage of this time I have, you know? I don’t feel like putting things off any longer. I realized that I needed to get things, certain things, accomplished and enjoy the day. That’s what spirituality meant to me so far.”	Walton and Sullivan 2004 (p. 143) [28]
Relationship with God (e.g., guidance and conversation with God)	“I realize that God is around me and in me, and He’s my friend, because I talk to Him like we’re really pals, although I know He’s God, He’s a pal-God. He’s like the closest pal I know that I can talk to about the hardest things that I have to think about.”	Walton and Sullivan 2004 (p. 137) [28]
Worship and adoration	“And then you know just do your praising. I praise you and I thank you and I praise you and every time thank you Jesus. I praise you Jesus. That’s all. It’s very simple.”	Levine et al., 2009 (p. 9) [35]
God’s presence	“I use both prayer and meditation. It’s nice to pray about things, and it’s also nice to sit there and be very quiet and relax and listen for answers.”	Walton and Sullivan 2004 (p. 138) [28]
Prayers for others	“I know when you have an illness, you have the focus of just praying, not only for yourself, but for your family and the people you love and the people that need you.”	Smith et al., 2012, (p. 313) [32]
Protection	“The prayer protection. You know, “The love of God surrounds me, the love of God unfolds me, the power of God protects me, and the presence of God watches over me. For wherever I am God is and always shall be.” So I said that prayer—I said it before I went into surgery then and I said it in the—in the surgery room for breast cancer.”	Levine et al., 2009 (p. 9) [35]
Strength and hope	“[I pray] I need strength today. Today is a hard day. Get me to my next visit. It’s kind of like bribery to me. I don’t ever…If you God take something away from me, then you have got to give me strength to deal with it.”	Taylor et al., 1999 (p. 390) [26]
Gratitude	“I just pray, I pray every morning. I pray every morning, and thank Him for …either your cup is half full or your cup is half empty. When I get up, I thank God because I have another day.”	Smith et al., 2012 (p. 313) [32]
Trust	“I think when you pray about something, you can only take it to God one time. So when I pray, I say I’m leaving it in your hands.”	Harvey and Silverman 2007 (p. 214) [36]
Forgiveness and guilt	“If in prayer you recognize you’ve done something wrong, it doesn’t make you feel good.”	Taylor and Outlaw 2002 (p. 55) [27]
Fear and complaint	“There are times when I say “why me?” because I know a lot of people who—to put it bluntly—who deserve something hard to happen and not a thing seems to happen to them. But I don’t have no control over it and it gives me some comfort to talk to Whoever it is upstairs.”	Taylor et al., 1999 (p. 390) [26]
Doubt	“It’s very hard for me to believe that there’s One Person that hears everybody’s Prayers… I just leave my illness to God; but He may not have all power over it.”	Taylor et al., 1999 (p. 390) [26]