How far reaching are God's powers?

[HappySkeptic]

Who says God must react on demand or obey some test that couldn't possibly be performed? How are you supposed to, for instance, measure the sincerity of someone's heart? That would be necessary to test any prayer.

The Scriptures say that our hearts are desperately wicked and unknowable, so you can't even test your own heart, much less someone else's.

Imagine that I set up a test of prayer, in a way that isn't known to the participants.  Their own hearts may or not be pure, but it isn't dependent on me doing the test.  As long as some of them have a pure heart, prayer must have an effect or the hypothesis of prayer is false.

Now, if God realizes that I'm performing a test, and ignores the prayers of people with honest hearts, what sort of god is that?

What is more likely -- that God purposefully acts to make sure there is no evidence of His actions, or that there is no evidence because no such actions have taken place?

Everyone that believes in an active God has an theory for how God works in the world.  But almost none bother to check if their theory is already invalidated by the existing evidence.  Those that realize that prayer or faith or good-living doesn't stop tragedy come up with all sorts of excuses like "God works in mysterious ways".

That's why I find that most zealots tend to be young or new believers. Those who have had a life of experience have evidence that good and bad happens to everyone regardless of faith or goodness.