When is prayer bad...

Yesterday I found a time that prayer did not work for me. I was in a group of men praying for the upcoming service and right in the middle of the prayer time I realized that the prayer being said, while well intentioned and perfectly valid were taking me totally away from the mindset God had given me to preach that morning. I was so distracted that I finally got up and left the prayer time so I could regroup my thoughts and regain my focus for the service. It made me think. Is there a time when prayer is not useful? Yes, I believe there is and here are a couple of the conditions.
First, prayer could be harmful when it is time to act. I think of the time when Joshua walked around the walls of Jerihco. On the seventh day God said that the time for prayer was over. It was time to shout. A time to act or in this case time for Him to act. Another time prayer can be trouble is when we pray presumptive prayers. This is when we create preconceived notions about what the answer needs to be inject our results as they are mandatory for God to follow. It always amazes me how some people only pray their solution during prayer time. Help John realize how wrong he is or let Liz get out of that relationship because he is no good for her. Presumptive prayers are popular. I just wonder just how biblical they are.
Just a thought...
Chris