Hi Gabriel, thanks for commenting. In answer to your question.. “is prayer answered a miracle”, I would have to say that it would depend upon exactly HOW God answered the prayer. For example, if I was scheduled for some type of surgery, and I prayed that it would go well, and it did go well, I don’t think anyone would call that a “miracle”. And the reason for that is because a skilled surgeon performed what he had been trained to do, and I took care of myself, and my body healed itself. It all went according to the natural laws which govern how our bodies become healed. Now God may very well have been looking out for us and making sure that all went well without any complications, but the healing was still according to the predetermined laws of nature that God has already ordained. And so God would have used His own natural laws to answer our prayer for healing, and there would be nothing “miraculous” about that.

But on the other hand, if we prayed for some kind of healing that God’s natural laws could never accomplish on their own, and we received the healing, I think we would have to conclude that it was indeed a miracle that God had performed.

And so I hope I’m being clear enough. If a prayer request is granted through perfectly natural means, there would be n miracle involved. But if a request was granted by something outside of God’s natural laws, then this would have to be a miracle. Would you agree with these things? Please let me know.