LV101 - Well said.
We have messed up this world in ways we cannot even imagine. How much further might science be in warning people of natural disasters, or diseases, etc... if we hadn't spent most of our existence spending that money on wars, or entertainment (to the extreme), etc.? The state of this world and all the abuse and heartache within it, are all natural consequences to the choices we have made throughout time, and continue to make. But we want God to fix everything... even though we continue to do the same things.
I cannot answer why some prayers get answered and some do not. Some prayers might not be within God's will. Some prayers might be in conflict with other prayers, or to grant them would be bad for that person or another in the long run - or might even affect someone else's will (such as praying to free your family from the WT, when they do not wish to be freed). Some might not be praying through Christ, to His Father. Some might not have faith in what they pray for.
But I don't think its fair to have a thread that asks people if their prayers have been answered, and then fall back on the 'what makes you so special'? Who is to say that any prayer would be too petty for God to answer?
I don't think there is anything that I have prayed for that could not be explained by some other means. But the timing, as Nobleheart mentioned, is powerful. Also, put the many prayers together and help granted, and the explanation needs to get just a bit better than coincidence, too :)
I have asked for mildness and inner peace (to help a situation at home) and received it, after many years and different attempt of doing this on my own, and failing. I have asked for an answer to something I do not wish to reveal, and received that answer immediately. I have added my voice in asking for help for the survivors in Japan who are hidden and lost or buried, to be found and saved, and then read what someone posted ten minutes later, assuring me that such things were already happening - it was also an answer to something else I asked. I have asked for my book to be published (after years of refusing to ask for something so self-serving and unimportant), and I had a book contract two weeks later.
I have thought about the one thing I asked for that I have not yet received, though I accept that my faith is not quite strong enough to receive it (yet), for one. And for two... it also falls into the realm of what I posted above. Asking God to clean up a mess that I have made, and that I could (and should) work hard to clean up myself. Perhaps sometimes, if it is something we caused, and something that we should clean up ourselves, then God leaves it to us to do so.
I didn't want to reveal too much, because they are personal and private, and I don't want people to know my prayers... those are between me and God, and His Son. But I was reminded of the time Christ told a man he healed to go and tell people how much God had done for Him, and so I decided to share a few of them.
Tammy