An often ignored aspect of prayer is that it is one of the means through which God achieves His ends and form part of what God will do. So we shouldn’t ignore prayer because it forms part of the means through which God works all His providential purposes. 

The Bible describes a sovereign God who has ordained all things, including the end of everything, while also determining the means through which all things are to end. 

Now getting to the question, the Bible verse from where this question or understanding stems is from the following; 

Psalm 115:3 (NKJV)

But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.

So if God will do everything that He pleases, why should we ask Him to do what we want?

This type of reasoning is a fundamental misunderstanding of what prayer is.

Before we ask why pray? We should ask ourselves, why do we eat every day? Because if we do not, we are not going to enjoy a very long and fulfilling life. 

Likewise, God has ordained the means through which we experience life, and that is through an intimate fellowship and conversation with Him through prayer. 

Another reason why we should pray is because Jesus Himself prayed as a means to commune with the Father. Furthermore, He also taught His disciples to pray, and by example, He showed the essential focus of prayer was to be in accordance with God’s will.

Matthew 6:9-10 (NKJV)

9. In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.

The primary goal of prayer is to get our hearts consistent with God and not the other way around. 

While we are in this world, we are going to have some trouble, and things might not work out; however, situations and understandings change when we have God’s perspective on things and when we receive an understanding of His will through prayer.

CS Lewis, a famous Christian author, said it well: “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time – waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God – it changes me.”

For example, when a person learns how to express his gratitude to God, that person will now become more and more aware of the hand of God (providence) in his life. Similarly, when a person spends their time confessing their sins, they are in effect keeping in front of their mind the holiness of God.

In conclusion, can our requests change God’s sovereign plan? Of course not. When God sovereignly declares that he will do something, all of the prayers in the world aren’t going to change God’s mind.

But God not only ordains the end, but He also ordains means to those ends, and as part of the process to bring his sovereign purposes to pass, He uses prayers of his people. And so we are to pray.