> Prayer is a gift to us, for it is our way to connect with God and have a relationsihp with Him. Yes, God knows what will happen in the future. But because He wants a relationship with us, it pleases Him to hear us ask for what we desire.

I've heard this a lot, too. You're saying that people should pray because God likes it. This is obviously an excellent reason -- if there is a God, doing what God likes is clearly the right thing to do, with no further justification needed. But how does that fit in with the *effect* of prayer which you believe in? This is what Faux Pas was getting at.

How can believers sincerely pray, knowing the path of the future is already known and set out by God, knowing their prayer is pointless in every way except for the single reason that God likes to hear it? How can believers ask others to pray for a particular result for them, if this is the case? Praying just because God likes it works fine as a reason for praise/thanksgiving, but not for request prayers.

Obviously the relationship of God to humans is not the same as we have with each other. But a human relationship in which Person A asks for things because it pleases Person B, but Person B has already decided whether or not to give Person A those things, doesn't strike me as a particularly nice relationship.