So the Lord relented...

Among many of the grey areas in my Christian walk is the question of prayer.  The Word tells us that the Lord hears our requests to varying degrees. I remember some passages where the Lord turns a deaf ear to cries and recall others where He listens closely.  We can make choices that distance ourselves from Him through our actions and by the gradual hardening of our hearts.  He is not capricious in degrees of listening, but there are definitely degrees and precedence.

It would make an interesting study---clearly the prophets have a more direct line from Abram, through Moses and Samuel. Here, Amos successfully sways the Lord away from destruction by locusts:

In my vision the locusts ate every green plant in sight. Then I said, "O Sovereign LORD, please forgive us or we will not survive, for Israel is so small."  So the LORD relented from this plan. "I will not do it," He said. -Amos 7:2-3

From Constable's Notes:

"The prayers of righteous individuals, like Amos, can alter the events of history (cf. James 5:16-18). Some things that God intends to do are not firmly determined by Him; He is open to changing His mind about these things. However, He has decreed other things and no amount of praying will change His mind about those things (cf. Jer. 7:16; 11:14;14:11-12; Acts 1:11; Rev. 22:20). It is important, therefore, that we understand, from Scripture, what aspects of His will are fixed and which are negotiable. The same distinction between determined choices and optional choices is observable in human interpersonal relations. Good parents, for example, will not permit their children to do certain things no matter how much the children may beg, but they do allow their children to influence their decisions in other matters.

For further discussion of this issue, see Thomas L. Constable, Talking to God: What the Bible Teaches about Prayer, pp. 149-52; idem, “What Prayer Will and Will Not Change,” in Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost, pp. 99-113; John Munro, “Prayer to a Sovereign God,” Interest56:2 (February 1990):20-21; and Robert B. Chisholm Jr., “Does God ‘Change His Mind’?”Bibliotheca Sacra 152:608 (October-December 1995):387-99."  -Constable's Notes

In particular, I'd like to explore this issue further by looking for the articles mentioned at the end.  I'm unclear as to all of the aspects that are  "fixed and which are negotiable."  His larger plans in history are fixed.  of parenting rings true to me.  In that context,  I can grasp how some requests are granted and others not---all for the best of the supplicant.  However from my memory of Old Testament scriptures, the Lord sometimes comes off as erratic in His decision making process.  When Abraham tries to talk the Lord out of destroying Sodom, the haggling seems childish at times.  Why does the Lord indulge Abraham in the discussion as He knows the hearts of all men, the past and the future alike?  There are times when the stories read too much like fables or tall tales, whether they are historically true or not.   I'm not confident in my ability to honor and grasp the genre and nuances of the text in such passages, never mind understand the mind of the Lord through them.