Why do Christians pray?

[Wiccan_Child]

It's not "simply" because one group got prayed for. The prayer that is efficacious is the prayer that is in alignment with God's will. That is, it is the prayer that God wants us to pray. It could be that those in the second group are not to be healed, and no burden of prayer was issued in that regard. OTOH, we can also intercede for people in the first group that we don't even know. It all happens according to His will, not ours. Coming to God implies a trust that He knows what He's doing, and a willingness to obey in our part of the plan.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. -Rom 8:14​

If it's God's will, surely it will happen anyway, prayer or no prayer? If God wants a person healed, why is God's divine intervention contingent on someone else praying for them? Indeed, if intercessory prayer works even when you don't know the person, can't you say a quick, "God, heal everyone", and then God is 'free' to heal whomever he pleases, thus rendering all healing prayers obsolete - after all, you've prayed for everyone!

If praying for everyone simultaneously doesn't work, why not? Can prayers only encompass a certain number of people? Does God ignore such gratuitously selfless and optimistic prayers? I'm genuinely trying to understand (after all, I have nothing to lose, and knowledge to gain, by learning your understanding of prayer), but the way you describe prayer, when taken to its logical conclusion, has some confusing, paradoxical, or simply unsettling implications.

 

[paul1149]

You're reducing this to a trite incantation. It doesn't work that way. God is real, the challenges are real, and His will is that we participate in a very real way. He could do everything Himself, obviously, but His salvific plan is to join us to Himself in ontological union and kingdom authority that is beyond anything we can imagine. Indeed, the Orthodox dare to call the process deification, while John admits "we do not yet know what we will be, but we will be like Him".

As for whether His will will happen, prayer or not, that's a difficult question. There is grace, which maybe covers such areas, and God is certainly sovereign, but essentially I would say that the prayers of the saints are necessary to get the will of God done. In His love and wisdom, the Supreme Being has deigned to limit Himself to working through the church, which is the very bride of Christ. Such is His commitment to us, through the covenant Blood of His own dear Son.