Prayers don't work so why do religious keep jabbing at it?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

When you pray for something to happen and it does, how do you know it wouldn't have happened had you not prayed for it?

Boru

The subject of the prayer lets me know. Some matters look impossible to happen but after praying for them to happen specifically; they come to be. Like a needle in a pile of grass.

For example, praying to be great at a work you do -that you aren't at all skilled at-, but suddenly after praying you find that the subject of the prayer came to be.

Not really my question.  I'll try to rephrase it.

Suppose someone prays to become great at work.  Suppose that, after praying, they DO become great at work.  All well and good.  But how can you know that they wouldn't have become great at work without praying to be so?

In a larger sense, anything that appears to happen based on prayer might have come about without prayer.  How do you tell the difference?

Boru