What good is prayer?

I asked a Christian friend of mine the following question:If God knows what people need/want, and if he knows whether or not he wants them to have it, what is the purpose of prayer? If God wants them to have it, and knows they need it, is he only going to give it to them if they ask? It seems unlikely that God is going to give anyone anything he doesn't want them to have, even if they do ask..My friend offered two suggestions:1 - Prayer is for people, not God, as it helps them feel "in touch" with God.2 - There is an ongoing battle between good and evil, and prayer helps the forces of good. (He did not explain how...)I asked him if these ideas had any scriptural support, and he said no.So I ask, what is the scriptural reason Christians pray?Citizzzen

If this topic has been explored, I didn't find it. Also, in the past my suggested post was critiqued. Should I assume that afte a week (?) the proposed topic has been declined?If so, could you point me to the discussion of this topic?Thanks,Citizzzen

Yours was proposed first, but the other one was the one that got promoted - Sorry.As I see it, If god has a plan, then doesn't that make prayer worthless? more or less covers the ground you were covering.Unless you or someone else presents a reason to do otherwise, I think you topic now needs to be rejected as being redundant.Again, sorry -Adminnemooseus

Hi, Citizzzen! I moved your topic starter into the other thread.If god has a plan, then doesn't that make prayer worthless?..tacking it on the last post. Lets resume the discussion, there!This message has been edited by AdminPhat, 04-07-2005 04:18 AM

"...Yours was proposed first, but the other one was the one that got promoted - Sorry..."No need to apologize, but thanks for the update. If I can have the discussion anyway, I don't care who started it... I se (Further along) that it went as a post in another discussion so I will jump in there...Thanks,Citizzzen(see)If god has a plan, then doesn't that make prayer worthless?