Me: "Hey, you're heading home this weekend right?"
Friend: "Yep, it's only a few hours away."
Me: "Are you going to raise some support?"
Friend: "Yeah, that's the idea. I'm going to talk in front of my church."
Me: "I'll pray for you. What time are you presenting?"
Friend: "10:30."
Me: "Cool. I'll pray before then."
Friend: "Good, because it doesn't really matter if you pray after."
I don't remember the exact conversation, but this is basically what was said. Then I was thinking. If God exists outside of time, and can see the beginning and the end simultaneously, then can we pray for things that already happened? Does it make sense to pray for things that already happened?
What if there's a car wreck on Monday, and I find out everyone is safe, and then I pray for everyone's safety? What if I was the only one that prayed, and they were only safe because God saw my prayer on Tuesday, and honored it on Monday?
Though I believe in prayer and all, I don't actually think in that scenario (of the car crash) that's how prayer works.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm an expert, but I have almost never seen an answer to my prayers as God "honoring" them. In fact, I think I mostly subscribed to the C.S. Lewis philosophy of "Prayer does not change God. Prayer changes me."
I do think something happen in the spiritual realm when people pray, though who knows how exactly this works, and I'm not sure if that realm is outside of time or not in the way God is.
That makes sense. I had a thought and wanted to know what my smart friends thought about my thought. :)
ReplyDeletei've thought about this before too!! what if i don't know if something hasn't happened yet, so i pray for it anyway? is it pointless if it really did already happen? i've always thought about it the way you described, that He's outside of time, so it doesn't necessarily matter when i pray for something. but i've also lately thought a lot along the lines of what megan says--prayer is not just because i want certain things to happen. prayer is to to be closer to Him.
ReplyDeleteVery true. :)
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