Call to God for help?

As a part of my daily devotional time I use a modified form of lectio divina as a way to approach the scriptures. I'm working my way through the book of the prophet Jeremiah. Here is the reading for today (Jeremiah 14:1-12) and some of my reflections on it.

The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
Judah mourns
and her gates languish;
they lie in gloom on the ground,
and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
Her nobles send their servants for water;
they come to the cisterns,
they find no water,
they return with their vessels empty.
They are ashamed and dismayed
and cover their heads,
because the ground is cracked.
Because there has been no rain on the land
the farmers are dismayed;
they cover their heads.
Even the doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn
because there is no grass.
The wild asses stand on the bare heights,
they pant for air like jackals;
their eyes fail
because there is no herbage.

Although our iniquities testify against us,
act, O LORD, for your name's sake;
our apostasies indeed are many,
and we have sinned against you.
O hope of Israel,
its savior in time of trouble,
why should you be like a stranger in the land,
like a traveler turning aside for the night?
Why should you be like someone confused,
like a mighty warrior who cannot give help?
Yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us,
and we are called by your name;
do not forsake us!

Thus says the LORD concerning this people:
Truly they have loved to wander,
they have not restrained their feet;
therefore the LORD does not accept them,
now he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.

The LORD said to me: Do not pray for the welfare of this people. Although they fast, I do not hear their cry, and although they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I do not accept them; but by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence I consume them.

The people raise a cry to YHWH ("the LORD") reminding one of the rhythms of Judges. They say, in effect: OK, we have not done well by our part of the covenant but, geez, you are among us, we are called by your name! You can't do nothing. You have a reputation to uphold!

But nothing is precisely what YHWH tells Jeremiah he will do. Jeremiah is forbidden to pray for them, and YHWH will ignore the usual religious practices as irrelevant.

It's not about the drought per se. The drought just is. It's about turning to YHWH in times of trouble when one's habit has been to turn away from YHWH the rest of the time. It no longer works like it did in the time of the Judges.

How about for us? I've gotten into the habit of relating the problems of the Old Testament people of God to the recent financial meltdown. Now I can add the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf. In either of these cases is it appropriate to turn to religious practice and plea to God for help? Or is it better to learn the hard lessons, demonstrating the fruit of repentance in the forming of new habits?