But is prayer just a placebo, like a drugless pill that works because the patient believes it will? Belief helps, but the Bible says prayer puts you in contact with God and gives ‘peace that is beyond human understanding.’ (Philippians 4:7) As Coles concluded, it’s supernatural.

Is it arrogant to expect God to take 5 minutes off from running the universe to bother with you? Not when He asks you to, and His time and love and intelligence are infinite. (That’s enough data-processing capacity to give all 5.5 billion of us personal attention and still run the universe.)

Is it arrogant for humans to tell God what to do? Yes, if we try to manipulate Him into running the universe our way. So Jesus told us to pray ‘Thy will be done’. In other words: ‘God, only you can see the big picture, so if I’m asking for something that’s harmful or selfish or impossible, forget it and I’ll trust you and try to be happy with whatever you decide.’ Honestly saying that can be a struggle with yourself - what if God doesn’t do what you think you want? But someone wrote, ‘God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led if they could see the end from the beginning.’

Why tell an all-knowing God what I want? Because He wants to protect our free will and won’t go against our choice. Prayer is like our vote to ask Him to interfere even though Earth is under Satan’s rebel government. It gives him human ‘permission’ to move.