Does prayer actually change anything?

Christians agree prayer matters, but they explain why in genuinely different ways depending on how they understand God's relationship to time and human choices.

Some Christians, often in more Reformed or Calvinist traditions, believe God has determined the whole course of events in advance, and that prayer is one of the real means God has ordained to bring about those very outcomes—meaning prayer is still genuinely necessary and effective, not just a formality, even within a fully settled plan.

Other Christians believe God genuinely responds to prayer in real time, adjusting his actions based on what people actually ask, similar to how a parent responds to a child's request.

Both views affirm that prayer isn't pointless performance—it's something Scripture consistently calls believers to do, expecting it to matter, even while disagreeing about the deeper mechanics of how it connects to God's plan.