Random chance isn't the "cause" of anything.
There are many causes for many things.
You are right. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love the Lord and to those who are called according to his purpose. Rom. 8:28
There is a wonderful experiment that has been done many times which demonstrates our propensity for confirmation bias.
I have read a horroscope or two before and it was very obvious to me how they work. They play to people's arrogance by giving general flattering statements about a person. They give qualities that most people have or assume they have or wish they had. In answered prayers however, God often leaves reassuring clues that let you know that He planned your answer specifically for you. Contrary to horroscopes answered prayers never play to my arrogance, but always increase my humility.
If God answering yes sometimes and no at other times is indestinguishable from random chance, why pray? The practical outcome is exactly the same.
There are various reasons why God may not answer a prayer: unaddressed sin, lack of faith, etc. However, assuming a person is in fellowship with God and has faith, God never simply dismisses our prayers.
There are two parts to every prayer: the pettition and the motive behind it. Sometimes God answers the pettition precisely thereby answering the motive, sometimes he does not answer the pettition but answers the motive. As we learn more Bible doctrine and gain the "mind of Christ" our thinking becomes more in line with God's, and our pettions and motives fall into line with his will. An immature Christian may ask God to win the lottery thinking it will bring happiness, but God knows such wealth would ruin him and make him miserable.
And sometimes to show us the stupidity of our request and the false motive behind it he answers the pettition, but not the motive.
A personal example of the last would be a few years ago (I am 18 now) when I was a stupid arrogant hormone driven freshmen, I asked God for something I thought reasonable at the time. I had seen God working in my life in the last year and naively felt like I was very mature. I said to God, "All right. I think I'm fairly spiritually mature, and I really wish I had someone to share life with and to love with all my heart." And I went on... I want to gag thinking of it now... God must have gotten a chuckle from it. My pettition was basically for a girlfriend, my motive was happiness apart from my relationship with God. The next morning, the phone rings and its the most beautiful girl I had ever known (she had recently moved away). She had come for a visit. To make a long story short I was miserably hoplessly in love/lust for a long while and had a stupid empty long distance relationship with her.
You may say this would have happened no matter whether I had prayed that prayer or not, but believing that she was the answer to my prayer was what gave me the... testicular fortitude to go for it. Praying this prayer also taught me great, painful, and unforgettable lessons about true love and true happiness, which I would otherwise have not learned.
If you request that the entire world be peaceful and free of hunger and strife, I'd say the chances of your request being granted are quite low.
Actually the chances of this happening are 100%. In the millineum this will be so, but not in this dispensation.
Of course, if God was really all-powerful and in charge, the liklihood of something happening would be irrelevant. God could just do it.
He can and will, but in this age, the age of the church, God has determined that His power will be expressed through the lives of individual believers. He has allowed pain and suffering, a by-product of sin, in this life to bring into high relief his mercy and love, and the greatness of the eternal life we are stepping into to those who accept Him.
I mean, how many millions of people over thousands of years have prayed to God to stop all hunger, and to stop all war, and he has never seen fit to answer a single one of those prayers?
But he seems to listen to you. Why not pray for the end of hunger and war and see if he answers those prayers?
Why pray for God to do something now that he has already told us he will not do now? Jesus said there will be wars and rumors of wars until I come, but do not be alarmed for these things must come to pass. If God said, "Screw it. Forget the tribulation and the rest of the church age and all of the things I was going to do. I'm going to start my earthly kingdom now," He would be going back on his word. Of course this idea is absurd because God is not bound by time and does not change his mind.
It isn't the individual answered prayers that prove anything, mike. It is the success rate over time.
You desire God to be like a computer. You desire him to be under your control and always give the desired output. You assume that your wisdom is greater than God's.
However, we are like the children to an infinitely superior father. What good father gives a child a candy bar every time he asks for one and never gives him discipline when he deserves it? It is not the number of candy bars a child gets per request that determines if he has a good father, it is how the child grows and matures by his father's loving interaction and discipline that shows how well a father has done his job.
The proof is not in the success rate of prayer over time. This is only an indication of a believer's maturity and conformity to the image of Christ. The proof is in the growth in faith and power in the believer's spiritual life.
Some people expect God to produce a miraculous answer every time they pray. He does this sometimes usually for the purpose of strengthening the faith of that believer. From God's perspective, though, what's so great about a miracle? He has the ability and has excercised the ability to answer all of our prayers simply working things together for our good within the natural order of his creation. This to me is far more amazing than making something appear out of thin air.
He has answered most of our prayers before we pray them. So why pray them if they are already in the process of being answered? We can only profit spiritually by the answers if realize where they came from.
Prayer strengthens our relationship with God and is also a powerful tool. God has determined to answer the prayers offered in faith of those who live according to His will.
"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings to search out a matter." Proverbs 25:2
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