The Power of Prayer...(Making humans feel better about failure and disappointment)

This topic always confused me as a child. I could halfway understand the "God help me decide which (insert big or small decision) to choose" prayer, but at that point you are more asking for help picking what God has already decided. The part that always ran my head into a wall of confusion was that "we just want to pray for healing of brother rottencrotch's cancer." And then, if the cancer went into remission they all exclaimed "Hooray!!! Yippee! Prayer works!!!!" Um...ok...let's make a right turn off of Bullshit Boulevard and head down to the corner of Logical Lane and Reality Road. This is another one of those "how can we make this work for me" ideas. God knows all. God has already determined all. Knew the date I would be born, then day I would notice my first gray hair (life altering day by the way), when I would have kids, and when I will die. All of this has already been determined. And yet we, as emotional humans, SOMEHOW think if we ask nicely God might change his mind and alter the predetermined path for our life. What about the guy that prays for the same healing and he dies anyway? Do we say in that case that prayer doesn't work? Or maybe he didn't pray as hard or as much as the other guy? Or maybe God just didn't love him as much? The fact is, pray or don't pray...it doesn't matter. It will not change the course of events. That would be showing favoritism by God. And that can't be. Prayer is simply a device used by us talking monkeys to make us feeling better. That way we can better handle disappointment and failure. "It just wasn't in God's plan." Sure many will disagree with me, although to do that they would have to read my blog so I am not too worried. Keep coming back cuz it works if you work it!