I've also wondered how appropriate it would be to pray for an event that has already occurred. If God exists outside time, why couldn't He hear my prayers for something that happened last week? Suppose someone has a test at 8am tomorrow. I plan to wake up early to pray for him, but instead I oversleep. Is prayer so rigid a device that any prayer I now pray is no longer effective? Or am I simply punished for my lack of discipline?
A part of me knows these are silly questions. Prayer isn't a device, or a tool, to be used. It isn't something where you have to follow rules about its usage. Prayer is something else entirely. But too often I fall into the habit of praying a wish list in the hopes that God will grant at least a few things on that list.
We should pray for the eternal. When we intercede for someone, we shouldn't ask that they do well at school, or find a job by such and such a date. We should ask for peace that can come only from God, for a genuine change of heart, for humility, for complete surrender.
We should pray for the present. That God's spirit would guide us in every moment. That it would guard our hearts, and nudge us in the right direction in our day to day activities. The Lord's prayer deals with today, not yesterday, and not tomorrow.
We should pray that His will be done. In His own time. Not on our own sense of schedule.
And in all these cases, the question of whether or not we can pray for something that has already happened ceases to be relevant.
Am I even praying correctly? Does He hear my prayers, and do they please Him?
"...we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."
- Romans 8:26
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