Prayer

"Prayer unites the soul to God." -Julian of Norwich

Why should we pray?
Grudem in Systematic Theology points out three reasons why God asks us to pray. The first is that it establishes our trust in God. It is not as though God needs the heads up on our needs but he wants us to acknowledge that we are dependent on him and trust in his provision. "If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him."Lk 11:13 Prayer is declaring that God has our best interest in mind and will respond. The second reason is that prayer deepens our fellowship with him, just as with any person the more we communicate the closer our relationship is. The third is that through prayer we become co laborers with God we are involved in the kingdom being accomplished on earth as God's sons and daughters.

How should we pray?

Can we really change what God is going to do? Well it certainly seems that we cheat ourselves out of things God may be willing to give us simply by not asking, James 4:2 says "You do not have because you do not ask." Through prayer God responds to our needs in ways that he may not have if we hadn't asked. There are also clear instances where God seems to change his mind in response to people's prayers. Moses after God declares that he would destroy Israel for their sins (Ex 32), prays "O Lord...turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people," and then it says "and The Lord repented of the evil that he thought to do to his people. God promises to respond to confession and repentance and bring healing and forgiveness (2 Chron. 7:14, 1 John 1:9)

What about praying for God's will?
"This is the confidence which we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us" 1 John 5:14 Praying according to what God wills is difficult in that we do not always have a clear picture of what that will is. I think though that the more we are in tune with God's spirit and conformed to his image the more our will will align with his and we will be automatically praying in accordance with it. Although I think it is important to leave room in a prayer for the fact that our will may not be his (no I don't think that this indicates a lack of faith to say God not mine but your will be done, even Jesus prayed this prayer) but also it's nice to know that even if we are totally off in our prayers God will still accomplish his will.

Factors that influence prayer:
Humility (Luke 18:11-12, 2 Chron 7:14)
Earnestness (Heb 5:7, Amos 7:2)
Faith (Mark 11:24, James 1:6)
Confession of Sins (James 5:16, PS 19:12)
Fasting (Neh 1:4, Acts13:3)
Thanksgiving (Mat 6:9, Phil 4:6)
Waiting (PS 38:15, 103:5-6)

Concluding remarks:
I don't know why God chooses to work through prayer but he does. I think it has to do with the nature of our relationship with him like a child and parent. The parent wants good things for his child but he is moved to specific actions by a child's requests. Even when that parent knows what a child wants or needs sometimes he will wait until the child asks. God desires communication in our relationship with him so much that he chooses to act on the basis of our communication. The way we ask has significant influence on the effectiveness of our prayers. Bottom line God is not limited to our prayers but he chooses to use them and we have no idea how different things would be if we prayed more.