My wife came home from Bible study not long ago and said a lady wanted to know why we should pray, since God has already determined the outcome. It seemed like a waste of time.
To say we don’t need to pray because God already has determined all outcomes is as ridiculous as saying we don’t need to take medicine, work for a living, or look for a spouse because God has determined all outcomes. It is true God has determined all outcomes, but God has also determined the means by which those outcomes will take place and prayer is a means to that end.
For example, if God has determined someone will be healed of cancer, then He is also aware and indeed has determined the prayers on their behalf, not to mention the birth of the oncologists and surgeons who would operate on her and the opening of a medical school in the region.
Prayers are one of the many means God uses to accomplish what He has determined. The event [in question] has already been decided—in a sense it was decided before all worlds were created. But one of the things taken into account in deciding it, and therefore one of the things that really causes it to happen, may be the very prayer that you are now offering. My free act [of prayer] and yours contribute to the cosmic shape. That contribution was made in eternity before all worlds were formed; but our consciousness of contributing reaches us at a particular point in the time sequence.
God determines both the ends and the means, including the prayers we offer. And he’s ordained his interventions to be in response to faith-fueled petitions. Put simply, God gives us the privilege of including us in his work.
In both Scripture and our experience, God responds to prayer. Moses prayed for food and water for the Israelites, Hannah prayed for a child and Elijah prayed for drought and then rain. The events God had already determined came to pass. But God also determined that Moses, Hannah, Elijah, and WE must never presume God will grant us apart from prayer what he has ordained to grant us only by means of prayer.
Finally, we are to pray without ceasing because God has instructed us to pray in that manner. So, let’s get down on our knees and pray . . .
2 Chronicles 7:14
. . . if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.