God can't answer prayer:

One factor that stays the same throughout religion is free will, god gives us the ability to make our own decisions and impact the world in whichever way we see fit, god set in the wheel of motion for life and had to leave it.

Free will:

God is seen as all loving, know matter the religion god has that capacity to love and forgive anyone and to do that it had to allow free will to take place and for the world to evolve into what it has.

If god was to listen to peoples prayers he/she/it would have to take away are freewill to do so, if god was to answer prayers he would be in the control of all outcomes deciding who's prayers are more valid than others which would result in him controlling all outcomes which would make us merely puppets to its plan.

To enslave people goes against being loving and against humans having free will, which fundamentally means god can not in any way control or effect what happens on earth because it would take away free will and god would know longer be omnibenevolent.

Love:

People say 'if you love something let it go' for a reason. Being controlling is not showing love it is showing self hatred and insecurity, if you truly loved a person you would do what is right for them and let them decide, know matter the outcome. Even though it may feel like the hardest thing you could ever do it is still the most loving thing to do.

I do not believe in any god, but I also do believe, because there is equal possibility for there to be a god and for there not to be, so I am not in any way trying to take anything away from religious people but rather make people realize that their strength comes from themselves, god has little to do with it other then putting the original wheel in motion.

So next time you sit down to pray I would say don't waste your time talking to an entity that will not help you because they can't, you have to find the strength to overcome any obstacle in your way. It does not mean god is not watching or listening just they fundamentally can not help anyone or anything even if that leads to our demise.

In the eyes of Christianity (the religion I know most about) God created us in its image with emphasis on humans having free will and with that free will comes the duty to have dominion over the earth and protect it. To me it seems that god gave humans free will and dominion because it knew that it would not be able to help in any way.

What prayer can do:

I am saying I don't think god can answer prayer but I also don't think prayer is useless. To me prayer is very similar to meditation, it is a way to relax the mind and give yourself time to think about what is important to you. Similarly to meditation if you are putting a thought or idea into your subconscious it will run with it, so if you pray asking that you find a purpose in life you will be more likely to find one. This is because your subconscious will know constantly be looking for a purpose picking up on tiny details and compiling what is important and picking up on small details that will help you.

Do you pray? and do you think it helps you? Let me know your thoughts on the subject in the comments, upvote if you enjoyed and follow for more.