How does prayer work?

Up early Kadizzle discovered on the Facebook there is or was a fire in Beulah, the next town down the line.  It came to Kadizzles attention because someone wanted people to fire out some prayers for Beulah.  Praying just makes no sense.  It seems to be based on the idea that you can ask god for a favor. You have a friend dying from cancer so you pray for them.  God please don't kill my friend.  Now this brings up the obvious question. Why did god want to kill your friend in the first place?  Well maybe he did not, or she did not if god is a woman.  OK, maybe god did not know your friend had cancer and you just wanted to let him know.  Now if you are asking god to do something to prevent suffering it clearly implies god can prevent suffering.  If someone was beating a dog you should not have to ask them to quit. If they were a good person they would not be beating the dog.  So this is the problem either god can stop things or he cannot. Why do you have to ask god to stop evil if he can do it without you asking?  Makes absolutely no sense.  No if it is just a matter of bringing something to god's attention then it should work every time.  Maybe god has a plan that includes burning down Beulah, and you just know about the plan.  So you are asking god to change his plan.  This must mean god is not a very good planner.  None of this makes a bit of sense.  When you think about god things get strange.  God apparently likes statues, large crosses, and best of all huge churches.  God seems a lot like a Republican that can never get enough.  The Mormons always try to build a better temple for god.  The radio preachers always say god needs more money.  Football teams pray.  Apparently god is a football fan and you can get him to help your team.  God surely has his reasons for doing things. Maybe he gets pissed off and lets us elect Donald Trump.  Of course there is the old saying be careful what you pray for you may get it.  Kadizzle does not do much praying.  Seems to Kadizzle god knows what he wants to do and he ain't going to listen to Kadizzle.  Maybe god likes Kadizzle because he is not always bugging him.  God has not been too bad to Kadizzle, so Kadizzle will just keep on letting god do his god stuff, and Kadizzle will keep on being a sinner.  Now the one nice thing god did come up with was the forgiveness thing.  It is like a lifetime warranty.  You can be the meanest nastiest person that ever lived and if at the last moment you repent you get a free ride.  Now that is a deal.  What car company would say you could be the hell out of your car, and they would replace it free?  So the world is a strange place.  God is up there at the switchboard answering calls.  Most of them he ignores.  Sometimes god must get pissed and let us elect a Trump or a Kevin Cramer.  On the other hand God might say" I have had enough of Kadizzle.  There is Kadizzle out on his sailboat,  here Kadizzle try a little lightening".  Puff, fried Kadizzle, no more blasphemy.