throughout jewish writings prayer is known as the labor of the heart (avodah shebeleiv) people spend their entire lives trying to perfect their prayer, its an incredibly difficult tasks, some of the most fundamental questions of faith manifest themselves under the topic of prayer, for example... Does God change things based on our prayer? Is prayer for us or for Him? Why should He listen to me? the questions keep on coming, but i think the point is all these difficult questions are tied up in the issue of prayer because it is so basic to faith, I can tell you from personal experience that its circular, in order to strengthen your belief in God and your sense of self (which are very intertwined btw) you have to pray, and once your belief is strengthened your prayer will undoubtedly improve, i would suggest not just making personal requests but incorporating your personal requests within the set prayer constructed by the Sages, its called the Silent Amidah or Sh'mona Esrei(which means 18, a reference to the original number of blessings within the work) if you google either of those titles I'm sure a translated version will come up, good luck
i hope your prayers fulfill yourself and i hope your prayers are answered

But what about when we say in the morning blessings, "sheasah li kol tzarki- Who provides me with all my needs"?

wow. that was a really good question; i was momenterally taken aback from it.

but even that bracha isn'tsaying "for everything i ask for." its "for all that i need," and those two things are very different. when we ask Hashem for something, sometimes He knows that we dont truly need it; we only want it. and in some cases, when we only want, and dont need something, Hashem decides not to give it to us. when we say "she'asa li kol tzorki," we are thereby admitting to Hashem that even though He doesnt give us everything we ask for, we raelize that He is always correct in deciding what we need (no matter how little we can understand it sometimes), and whatever we have at any given moment is what we need and what is best for us

what do you need? food, air, water, shelter. god provides air and water and the supplies for food and shelter.

Even though my Mother is Jewish, I wasn't raised Jewish. I plan to attend a Synagogue in Leeds soon, as I live in the UK. I started to believe in G-d when I was 11 years old. I was in a stressful position at school and I was bullied simply because I was quiet. I discovered Judaism and read the Holy Books and prayed every night. Within just two months, my parents had managed to moved to a different area, put me in a new school and give me a fresh start.

One thing you must know is, when you refer to "i dont feel it ever rlly got me anywhere", I presume you mean you didn't get the any response or any evidence. But, G-d doesn't need to give evidence. He created the human race, he created the world.

It's perfectly natural for you to doubt G-d with all this Scientific theories going on, but their just discovering more about the wonderful world that G-d created. Also, as for the theories of how the world was created, take them with a pinch of salt. Everyone has their own opinions.

As for advice, take time to pray to G-d. Be in a calm, relaxed mode and just work on making that bond stronger. It'll help you feel better, and renew your faith. This is my opinion, I come from a Reform background, so people may see this differently. Mazel Tov!

[quote=
I pray, rarely. When I make a wish at 11:11, or when my grandfather had a stroke, I asked for his recovery every day, and he has recovered (not fully, he's shaky, physically. But he learned how to talk and walk again). I thank the doctors, of course, and the rehab.. but I believe that God played a part in it when he heard my wishes and prayers.[/QUOTE]

I think that in your case He had specifically encoded the skills into the doctors while they were being concieved, so that they could save your grandfather, if only to a certain degree.

And back to the original thread, He shall always be there for you, His ways may be mysterious but they seem to work.

Couldn't you then argue from there that there is some type of "divine plan" that God or whatever has created at the start of the universe?

Yes you could, but that would take many a life time to figure out, if we ever do.

the book of ecclesiates deals with your arguement to an extremely lengthy degree, the back and forth between several philosophies, such as...

the hedonist who believes God's plan is decided, thus we can do nothing to change it and are just on this earth to enjoy,
the believer responds, but then the hedonist lives a sad, lonely egocentric because noone will ever have any motivation beyond what is best for themselves
the hedonist responds, so what we all die anyway, nothing we do matters
the scientist claims that the world has a man made system that can be manipulated to ensure a life of success
but the underlying question of for what purpose do we serve remains, the hedonist answers none, the believer answers for the service of God, and the scientist answers knowledge and figuring the way the world works
ecclesiastes concludes with two questions...
1)does our uncertainty of the results of our labor stop us from planting?
2)do we not attempt to reproduce despite not knowing what will come?

the point King Solomon is making is that man's world is programmed to require faith in something running the show, without it there would be no reason for any required effort in anyhthing not yielding immediate results, the nature of the world directs us to the answer that God reveals more clearly in His Torah,

the proof is in the pudding, after spending a weekend indulging in every possible indulgence regardless of keeping in mind that our actions are irrelevent because of the "circle of life" which exists in balance no matter what we do, you feel an emptiness, an existential longing for more, on the contrary after spending time indulged in something that yields long term results that are meaningful in their own right or meaningful for their affect on others you feel tremendous, a sense of existential fulfillment
this is not coincidental, God designed the world to direct us toward His will, whilest still giving us a choice, its the most beautiful paradox, for more on the subject i suggest the various writings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik