What does praying actually accomplish?

[Lukaris]

Prayer can cultivate your conscience to hope for what is good and to have it guide you to do what is right as you strive toward your own salvation and hope & try to help others towards theirs. Works are the primary expression of this but we cannot boast for this is only done through grace (see Ephesians 2:8-10), that we are unworthy servants (Luke 17:10), knowing how tenuous life is & that the world is decaying but to be of good cheer since our Lord has overcome it (see John 16:33). In all of this, why would I not believe that prayer cannot bring healing?

 

[childofGod31]

I've never understood it, even during the 27 years I was a Christian.

(And I'm referring to praying for other people, ie. terminally ill, recently deceased)

Praying accomplishes a lot, but only if done by TRUE children of God

(and who knows who they are except a person himself in his own heart and even then not often)

AND if it's according to the will of God.

We think on a very small scale. We think that everybody should be healed. But we forget that one single act can disturb the life paths of multiple people. Watch Bruce Almighty. It's an example of how answering prayers must be done in a very wise fashion otherwise you create a chaos in the world.

Some people won't be able to continue to be Christians if God healed them. Their decease probably keeps them going. Some people need to die (it's their time) in order for the paths of other people not to be disturbed or be out of balance (each choice a person makes is like a life path) and there are innumerable number of them and every act can create a chain reaction (like a "domino effect" and God has to take ALL that into consideration before He grants each miracle. But sometimes, miracles are instigated by God himself: He tells a person by the Holy Spirit: pray for a miracle. And the person prays and receives a miracle. And it's because God has already decided that He WANTS this person to be healed and that this path is the best for this person and the best for others too (because of the chain reaction)

So we can always pray (and God insists that we do, somehow He uses our prayers to give our answers. I mean even though He knows what we need before we ever ask, for some reason He seems to insist on us praying without ceasing, it's like a tool He is using to give us answers)

But the main point is: He answers all the prayers that are in accordance with His overall plan (in the big picture). We need to pray and expect IF it is according to His will. And we need to add that to our prayers.
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[fm107]

I've never understood it, even during the 27 years I was a Christian.

(And I'm referring to praying for other people, ie. terminally ill, recently deceased)

So you were a Christian? But now an athiest?

No, you could not possibly have ever been a Christian in that case.

Why would it be possible to influence God through petition?

This should answer both your questions.

The Parable of the Persistent Widow
Luke 18
1Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’”
6And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

Matthew 7:7
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Luke 11:3
Give us each day our daily bread.

 

[NIF]

I've never understood it, even during the 27 years I was a Christian.

(And I'm referring to praying for other people, ie. terminally ill, recently deceased)

Strictly speaking, prayer (often) does not 'accomplish' anything in the earthly sense. We do live in a physical world governed by natural laws, and apart from a couple sporadic miracles (like those that Jesus did), there is not much we can do in this life time. Remember that Jesus, God himself, prayed on the cross and in the garden and it did not save him.

I think the purpose of prayer is to set our heart in the right place to grow as people. If we focus on eternity and not just this earthly life, we eventually will see the 'results' of our prayers after the resurrection.

 

[fm107]

Strictly speaking, prayer (often) does not 'accomplish' anything in the earthly sense. We do live in a physical world governed by natural laws, and apart from a couple sporadic miracles (like those that Jesus did), there is not much we can do in this life time. Remember that Jesus, God himself, prayed on the cross and in the garden and it did not save him.

Prayer accomplishes many things but one must have the faith to believe in what they are praying for first.

.............................................

John 10:18
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

It was not nails that held Jesus to that cross it was love. Jesus is God, he could easily enough came down from that cross but didn't because:

John 14:31
the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus loved his father and us too much to not go through with it.

 

[christianmomof3]

All prayer functions to allow us to contact God. That in itself is wonderful. The Bible tells us to pray unceasingly meaning we should always be in contact with God.
As far as specifically petitioning for people who are ill, or for any specific thing, you are correct that such a request may or may not be carried out.
For instance - if someone has some condition and you pray that it will go away - it may or may not go away.
That is true.
However, you have to look at the person who is praying.
Are they praying for their will or for God's will?
It may be my will for brother Joe's toe to heal, and I may pray away about that, but his toe may have to be amputated.
Therefore, was I praying for God's will?
Perhaps the Lord had some reason that brother Joe might gain Him more or be more effective in preaching the gospel without that toe.
Who knows?
It is like a child who prays asking for ice cream.
Is that really the Lord's will?
When we pray, we should be in spirit and contact the Lord and ask that His will be done in a situation we are petitioning for.
If we do so, then whatever the outcome, we can be comforted and satisfied that what happened was indeed the Lord's will.

God is not a genie in a bottle. We can't make wishes and expect He will just give everyone what they ask for.
He is God and His ways are beyond ours.
Sometimes we may pray for something and we don't get it and later we see why we did not get it and why it was not the Lord's will for us.
Other times, we may never know.

But, the act of contacting the Lord and praying is never in vain.
It helps us to gain more of Christ and the person who we pray for is often comforted by the Lord.
I know that I have often felt comfort from the Lord when I have been in tough situations and then later found out that others were praying for me.