How Thanks to God Can Shape Faith

People who are religious often talk to their God. They do this through prayer. This is a big part of their faith. Scientists wanted to see how saying thanks to God affects this faith. They asked 93 Christians to keep a diary. They had to write down their prayers for two weeks. This gave over 1, 000 prayers to study. The scientists used two methods to check these prayers. One was a dictionary-based method. The other was a more advanced AI method. The results showed that people often thank God in their prayers. When they did this more than usual, they felt closer to God. They also had more good thoughts about prayer. But, it did not make them pray more often. This study gives us a new way to look at faith and gratitude. It also shows how we can study private things like prayer. The methods used here could help us understand more about how people express their faith.