This is sort of what I was getting to, where prayer doesn't seemed to have a definitive purpose, at least in Christianity, because in most cases its purpose is determined on a case by case basis. And yet, while we're thought that prayers will be answered, we also have to keep in the back of our minds that some prayers won't be answers and also that there are some prayers that are bad prayers, which almost makes prayer a s whole system of its own.
Well, it depends. In some religions, it's a simple act of worship. Like in Islam, for example. You typically pray to show your respect / reverence.
But generally in Christianity, particularly modern Christianity, it's a sort of hopeful wish fulfillment deal.
Christianity is all about bestowing.
Not to say you can't "pray" (read: hope / ask) in a similar fashion in other religions, but it's more about the reverence than wanting something.
Like I said above, it almost seems like a case by case thing. I mean, in my church, we were told that prayer is a form of communication. We practiced a "relationship with Jesus" and not a religion about Jesus, and that's why they would often say that the Catholic Church had it wrong since they were reciting prayers from memory, which would soon become insincere. So it was important to pray to God daily because that was like spending quality time talking to him.
But then like you said, it also becomes a form of wish fulfillment. But I feel like that alone just opens a ton of questions in itself. I mean, the Bible says ask and you shall receive, but if you don't receive, then keep asking. Now what if I asked God to kill someone? That would become a invalid prayer because its evil, but yet I'm told that if I ask for something, then I will recieve it, and if I don't receive it, how can I continue to support this God that doesn't answer my prayers. Now, some people would say I need to change my prayers, but then if I do that, I'm basically giving up my free will and turning more into something God deems as worthy of listening to.
And I mentioned how a conversation I overheard sparked this, and what basically happened was that on Saturday night, my brother was parked outside of a store and some man approached him asking for directions, and then he said he had just gotten out of jail and needed money and maybe a ride. Now I said how my mom thought us all to fear the world, so she heard this and thought the guy would kill my brother or steal his car. But my brother gave him $20 and nothing happened, and afterwards my mom said that it was her prayers that saved him. But then, the next day, he got hit by a cab and his car got messed up. Even though he was safe and people said the crash could have killed him, it begs the questions of why would my mom's prayers "save him" the first time but not the second. Were her prayers not strong enough? Was it all part of God's plan, and if so, does God's plan have a limit that allows for prayers to change events in between? Or was my brother just in the wrong place at the wrong time?
It's like you're told all of these things about how important prayer is, but I remember thinking this one day during a service where I felt like prayer was not all that important if something is meant to happen, then its going to happen, and this was proven by how even Jesus couldn't overturn his own death and eventually came to the conclusion that it had to happen and there was nothing that he could do about it.
