Prayer

God tells us to pray. Praying is our way to communicate with God. Over and over in the entire Bible pray, prayer, praying, etc is mentioned 512 times. It would NOT be mentioned this many times if God wasn't so serious about it.
But, what happens when we pray and we feel that God doesn't hear us? What happens when we pray repeatedly for God to heal the sick, to save the lost, to help us? Does that mean that God hear us, but doesn't care.
I think that everything that surrounds the topic of prayer is a question that only GOD can and will answer... in HIS time.
MckMama wrote a beautiful post, in which she pours her heart out speaking about the very issue of prayer and how big our God is. You can read it here: "To Him Be the Glory" .

In reponse to the post, another reader posted a question on another blogger's, and the following is her question, and his response.
Question: ( from Jenny)
Okay- I was thinking of asking this question to Angie (over at Bring the Rain), but since you all OFFERED...!

Do you believe that God has His mind already made up about everything and that no matter how many people pray or how hard they pray, He will not change His course? Both MckMama and Angie have talked about this briefly, but I have to be honest, it never crossed my mind until they mentioned it. I just assumed that we could have an impact. What is God's purpose for prayer?

Answer: (from Brent)

It depends on the VIEWPOINT.

If we look through GOD’s EYES, then NO He never changes His mind in reality, because His Will is always done, and any decision He makes will come to fruition even if that decision appears to involves “changes” of decision. That’s looking at it from God’s viewpoint who is outside of time and physics.

From OUR VIEWPOINT, God does change His mind based on what we do. We can pray to change God’s mind. We can repent and God might change His mind about some punishment He planned. There are plenty of examples of this in Scripture. Many of these difficult questions about God can be more easily understood if we learn to see things from BOTH views: from God’s view (to the degree we are capable of seeing it from His viewpoint), and from OUR view as we experience life and a relationship with God. For example, from God’s view, He knew and determined from the “beginning of time” what the outcome would be for Angie. He also has determined what the outcome will be for Stellan and Abby.

His “decision” WILL come to pass no matter what anyone says, does or prays. That’s because God’s “decision” was made based on full knowledge of everything that would or could ever happen, be asked or be prayed.

From OUR VIEWPOINT, we don’t know God’s final will for Stellan or Abby. So we pray. We ask God. We petition Him to “change His mind” about Abby having Leukemia or Stellan’s heart problems. We can indeed “change” God’s mind or cause Him to act because the fervent prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective, accomplishing much.

That is from OUR view.