Thursday, February 12, 2009

Prayer

So I have a question. Do you think prayer can work retroactively? Does God take a certain action on things based on his knowledge that we will pray in that direction, even if we haven't yet?

I was thinking about this last week when I went to the Ecuadorian consulate in LA to see about getting a visa. I was thinking about posting asking for your prayers for that, but then I didn't because it was already late at night and I was going the next morning and I thought, "they won't read it before I've gone." And then I got to asking myself if prayer can work that way. I've thought about it before, but never this much.

Here's what I mean. Let's say I make a blog post asking for prayers for something that's happening the next day. Then let's say you read that post the day after the event has happened. Or two days after or two hours after, whenever. But you still haven't heard the outcome of said event. Can you pray for things that have already happened ("God, I pray that went well" "I pray that you did this or that")? I mean obviously you can...but does it matter what we pray at that point? Or not? I wonder if in the crucial moment God thinks about all the prayers that have been lifted up on behalf of that moment, and I wonder if He considers prayers that will be lifted after the moment has occurred when He has already taken some kind of action. I wonder if those prayers that take place afterward affect his decisions. And I wonder, if those prayers that would have been prayed after the fact, never get prayed because we think it's too late...will God respond accordingly?

I like to think they do matter; that prayer can work that way. That's just my hope, I have no Biblical backing for that opinion, but I have seen evidence of the incredible power of prayer, and I believe God is capable of anything. So...why not? What do you think?