Is praying online just another way for people to talk about their problems but to a bigger audience?

i actually visit this particular site often and has found it helpful and supportive. yes we tell others what we are struggling with we also post prayers to say thank you to God for all He does for us and for me personally. An it was God that said that where 2 or more people pray together a miracle will happen...and since i work late and most weekends and cant really go to church or groups, i use this site as my personal prayer group and it works.

Firstly, this is a sensitive subject for a lot of people so let's take that into consideration.

To answer your title question, I don't think so.

I'm unfamiliar with the site you're talking about, but I have seen other sites like that. I think a lot of times people pray for things that they might already be doing, but aren't getting results. For example, the person who is asking for prayers to help lose weight may already be enrolled in some kind of diet program, and it's not working. I also think sometimes it helps to know that someone is praying for you.

Personal example, I went into surgery the other day, and a lot of my friends told me they were praying for me. Regardless of if they actually did or not, knowing that people were praying for me, brightened my spirits a little about the surgery.

I will say that sometimes prayers might be directed at the wrong goal or be selfish (new job, more money etc), but a lot of time prayer can lead people away from those goals and find the right thing.

If you don't like the site, or the idea, don't visit it. There are a lot of people who need those sites, whether it's like you said, they need a bigger audience to complain to, or whether they actually just need someone to pray for them.

As for your second question, why don't they do something else about it, the answer to me seems obvious- you don't always know the full story. I mean everyone has problems, some are more severe than others, but most people are good hiding them from their friends and family. Sometimes it's just hard to ask a bunch of people at your church, who see you every week and have known you for awhile, to pray for a hidden problem in your life. Here's an example,

(Please be awared that the example I'm about to give might offend some people)

One of my youth [I help run a youth group] approached me the other day and wanted to talk. He told me, after a lot of talking around the issue, that he was addicted to porn. He wanted someone to pray for him, but felt uncomfortable bringing it up when our youth group asks for prayers. He was afraid the other guys/girls would judge him for that.

It's a sad fact, but it does seem true that we're more likely to judge our friends and family that we see every day, rather than a person we've only talked to online. The difference is that the people who see us every day, know how we act, and they already have some idea of who we are. When you talk to a person online, you can tell them the story of what you need prayers about, and they are not influenced by your daily life. Sometimes you just need a complete outsider to pray for you, instead of someone on the inside .

Hope that [essay] answers your question

Eh on re-reading that, my train of thought is jumbled and mixed. (Still on meds from the surgery) Good luck reading through that, sorry for my lack of flow :D

Prayer should be between yourself and God. Posting your prayers on an internet site do nothing more than possibly help you vent and remove a piece of the burden of your problem onto another medium. The strongest link you will find, however is within yourself.