Petitionary prayer is effective at bringing down wisdom from above ('uncommon sense').
At the very least, even if there were no one listening to the prayers (_quod non_), when praying, I am not thinking my own thoughts about the matter in question.
The human approach to matters is to put on one's thinking cap. This is really the dunce's cap. To think without first asking God to direct my thinking is to look for my keys without turning the light on, whilst wearing thick oven gloves that dull the sense of touch.
How often have I thought about something and made it worse?
Instead, I've learned to go to God like an idiot child and just ask.