Does prayer work?

Yes. Unless you work at something, you don't have a prayer of succeeding at it.

Sometimes. When you pray for rain it will never rain but if you pray for atheists you will always get atheists. 

I figure 99.9%  of the time praying dosen't work - like there were a lot of Jews praying they wouldn't get thrown in the gas chambers but they still did. And there were lots of people in Rwanda praying that they wouldn' t get hacked to pieces but they still did. Cheers!

If you think it does, it does. Otherwise, no.

 

  For those who believe in it, yes, and it is quite effective. However, many people misunderstand prayer to be some kind of wish list or demand list, and if/when things don’t meet their expectations after having prayed, their faith falters as a result.  When applied improperly, anything in life can go wrong, and prayer is no exception.  A person might pray that a sports team win against an opponent or that a recipe turn out correctly or that a job prospect comes through. Are those truly prayers, are they wishes, is there a difference, if so, is it right or wrong to pray for those things?  Unrealistic prayer is also a common theme. My stepfather told me that he “turned against God and stopped believing” when his mother passed away. He was at least 40 or 50 years old when that happened, meaning that she was between 70 and 80 years old, she was in extremely poor health and had been for more than two decades. She was not going to live forever, and her odds of surviving were automatically lessened by fact (age, health, etc.). 

  Prayer is like many other aspects of life: its validity is based on the interpretations and perceptions of the person or people who consider it. Non-believers and atheists might be quick to dismiss it completely, and they are perfectly within their rights to do so, without it being seen as a disparagement on their intelligence, character or personalities.
 
  My beliefs are exactly that: mine. I am not saying that anyone has to agree with me or consider me to be correct in what I think. On the subject of prayer, there are many types of prayer, of praying, and of people who pray.  Fervent prayer that glorifies God is acceptable, not selfish prayer that glorifies ego or greed.

  I believe that God always answers all prayers.  He says yes, no, or wait. Simple as that. There can be absolutely no other possible answers to any prayer. Frail humans who misinterpret a “no” or a “wait” as an unanswered prayer fail to see the point. Similar to when any human being asks any other human being for something, the answer isn’t always going to be yes. Just because the answer isn’t what was expected doesn’t mean it’s not an answer. 

~

Mankind has free will.  God can do all the prodding for a person to change, so a situation can change, but if they refuse, everything stays the same. It is a; take another lap around Mt. Sinai until you have learned your lesson.  You can wander in the wilderness by refusing to step up to the next good level.
This is why I am so open to improving myself, I say that with humbleness in my heart.  Seeing the areas that need improvement can be excruciating to face.  We all have an idealized version of who we are until we take a closer look. Admitting the need is painful, then actually taking the steps to change can be difficult and requires one to humble themselves and just do it.  The rewards are worth it.  
Of course the prayer needs to be within the will of God.  You can't pray for something bad and expect it to happen.  
  This post was edited by . at June 23, 2020 8:02 AM MDT

Too many long answers. Here's mine. It can't hurt.

If it's within God's will, and if you are not double minded. Prayer is also a way of giving thanks, not just asking for things, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.  And, also a demonstration of faith, Romans 12:12.

Matthew 6: 5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your "Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." After this manner therefore pray ye:

"Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. 
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

This is a powerful prayer, and perfect in it's simplicity, because it asks for God's kingdom to come, and his will to be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
It asks for a basic need for food, remembering also that daily bread is God's word, and Christ too was God's word in the flesh. 
Then it asks for forgiveness, for we are in a spiritual battle, and God's measuring stick is how we forgive other's, this is because salvation is to do with the state of the inner man.
Finishing with asking for us not to fall into temptation, and to be delivered from evil, again all to do with man's spiritual state of being, keeping his mind and heart focused on what this is all about.

Absolutely.

I don't know if it ever worked for me or not but probably not.  When I was little I was always told I had to love God but the problem was I never had any feelings for it.  I love my parents, my brother, my pets and now my husband and my own children but it's impossible to love something that's invisible that has no interaction with me.  Prayer was just something I did because it was expected.

Prayer has mixed results for the people I know.  My mom, her brother and his wife and my uncle-in-law and my aunt-in-law all say it works for them and God answers their prayers.

Both of my first cousins from my mom's brother say it never worked for them.  They both grew up as Christian but one of them became an atheist and the other became a Wiccan.  My husband also grew up as Christian and also says prayer never worked for him.  After he left Christianity he tried positive thinking and the Law of Attraction but got the same results as prayer so all of his Law of Attraction workbooks, CDs and DVDs went in the dumpster.  He now practices witchcraft and since becoming a witch he got all of the things in life that he previously asked for in prayer or tried to attract by positive thinking so for some reason being a witch just seems to work for him.

Yes.
Should You Pray?
https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/wp20140401/does-god-answer-prayers/



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Video:Does God Listen to All Prayers?
https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/good-news-from-god/draw-close-to-god/video-does-god-listen-hear-prayer/

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Does God Listen to All Prayers?

yes, it works