People ask God for things all the time. Sometimes it's fairly petty, like finding a parking spot, or praying that the new recipe for Chicken Bonfiglio came out all right. Other times the stakes are bigger, like petitioning God for that promotion at work or that you submitted a successful bid for that house you so wanted. And then there's the really big items: that the line of tornadoes miraculously misses your town, or at least, your house, or begging God for that pesky cancer to go away. But does all this praying do any good? By "any good" I mean does the thing that is prayed for actually come to pass?
I think that the honest answer is a resounding "NO".
Sure, you can find people who will tell you that they prayed for a specific outcome that subsequently came to pass. I have no doubt that they're right. After all, tornadoes don't hit every town, or every house in a town that they hit. Cancer often does go into remission, never to return. (And we sometimes get the parking spot, the Chicken Bonfiglio is a success, and we get the promotion). But the ugly truth is that there are myriad examples where houses are destroyed by tornadoes and cancer patient die painful, drawn-out deaths. It stretches the bounds of credulity to suppose that none of those who suffered various catastrophes prayed, that they were all atheists, or God-deniers of one type or another. And I'm sure that we can all think of examples of God-believing, religious people, who led exemplary lives, whose prayers were for naught.
Believers address this in different ways. For those who have avoided the more horrible of circumstances, they can smugly assert that their continued health, safety and prosperity is due to their godliness and the frequent utilization of prayer. The more realistically-minded (including theologians) devise explanations to explain why prayer obviously doesn't "work" 100% of the time. One explanation I'll broadly call the "mysterious ways" or the inshalla explanation. This umbrella category includes the belief that God, no matter what the situation looks like, has a plan, and that the disaster that you are experiencing is part of a greater plan that you just don't understand - you not being God after all. A subset of this belief is the theory that there is a benefit to suffering, and that you will be a better person in some undefined way by enduring. A different theology holds that it's not God's decision at all. Since it says in the Bible that "whatever you ask in prayer, believing you will receive", then it's the fault of the individual, not God, when bad things happen. This theory insists that there are numerous "promises" in the Bible that are guaranteed as long as you believe them, and when you don't receive these promises, then obviously you didn't believe. Points to you if you recognized the circular reasoning of the latter theology.
If you don't recognize the frustration inherent in both of these theologies, then you have a high tolerance for frustration indeed. If you accept the "God has a plan" view, you're going to be praying for things, with no assurance that God is going to comply. In fact, the God being described here is capricious and arbitrary. You have no way of knowing what actions are going to keep you healthy and safe, because God ain't gonna tell you! Why bother praying? If God is going to do whatever his mysterious plan entails, prayer has no affect! The other way isn't any better. God, at least, isn't described as the black hole that the former theory describes him, but it's a blame the victim theology. And, just like "God has a plan", there's no way determine what works and what doesn't. I was part of a group that subscribed to the "law of believing". Many times we thought we were believing God's promises but were convinced that some tiny sliver of doubt had crept in...it must have, or else we would have received, right?
Something I told a family member some years ago was "Maybe God isn't who (or what) you think he is". This was in response to her telling me about prayer fervently in a situation and the polar opposite coming to pass. Evaluating why you think prayer works, or why God is obliged to do what you think he should do, is as something I recommend that believers do. Despite there being a books written that allegedly describe God's attributes, most people create God in their own image, ignoring inconvenient parts of their holy books. Why do you believe God is an entity who is required to answer your prayers, rather than the God of the Deists who created the world, but then headed off to a warm, sunny beach with a good book and a cocktail with an umbrella in it.
The other thing that I heartily recommend to anyone who is convinced that God answers prayers (in the affirmative) and believes that their prayers are answered without exception, or at least consistently) is to keep a log. Write down everything that they pray for, in detail no matter how insignificant or petty. Then, log the results. Honestly. Without editorializing on why it didn't come to pass or rationalizing why a non-result could be actually be a positive result, or how you got what you needed rather than what you asked for. I predict that the statistics will be disappointing.
However, if anyone can honestly document a year of 90% or greater positive prayer results, I just may change my mind about the efficacy of prayer.
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