Prayers are not proxy for one's efforts and your physical mind can't command these divine messages of surrender to fix at will. Neither is this about rituals and how obsessive you get about how this worked for you and that how it 'should' work for others too..because they don't. They are not missiles that can get guided at your will.
The calm and the storm of one's life when viewed the same is the eye of the needle which bursts the lies, the ignorance,and the pride in you through being aware of your breath and an amazing tool called meditation which sharpens your divine mind.
Rising above the pains of the physical with equanimity is just as much effective as a surrender to a power higher above and in total faith. The difference is how far do you go to support yourself with focused clarity instead of blind dependence on spirituality, and I believe prayers provide you with a state of mind to accept what come your way than what you expect and what you want within a given span of time. Because God cannot replace self responsibility as much as prayers don't do proxy for your actions and their consequences.
