We all plead to something before a test or a big tournament, whether to Hashem, Allah or ourselves. The power of prayer becomes a problem however to any who have faith and believe in the concept of predestination. Allow me to accentuate the problem by demonstrating the extent of the utter and total control that G-d has over our own personal lives and the world we live in down to the smallest detail. To any sophisticated individual of a religious persuasion it should be obvious that creation did not occur in such a way that after billions of years of nothingness, G-d decided to create the world in six days, rested on the seventh, and has been observing from above ever since. Additionally, as the philosophers of Torah explain to us, nothing in the world can be sustained on its own.
Creation is a continual, never ending process.
Every fraction of a second G-d is constantly creating the world, bringing something from nothing, or turning chaos into order, as modern physics understand it. This idea can be understood through a parable. Imagine you are sitting in a very boring class, and the teacher is talking and you are not listening, and soon enough your mind begins to wander. Your imagination begins working and a daydream starts to form. Instantaneously it vanishes from all existence.