“Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: – 2nd Thessalonians 3:1
I’m sure glad I’m not the only one who thinks this way — the logic goes like this:
- God lives outside of time, it is all now to him;
- God acts on prayer from us;
- So why can’t my prayer now affect events in the past as easily as the future?
Logically there is no reason why not but how can they if they have already happened? When Paul or Jesus in the Bible asks believers to pray for something is it not biblical for me to pray now?
Philip Yancey in his book on prayer thinks through the same thing, finding help from C.S.Lewis
“How does God’s timelessness affect prayer? C.S.Lewis decided it altogether reasonable to pray at noon for a medical consultation that might have been conducted at ten o’clock as long as we do not know the final result before we pray. “The event certainly has been decided — in a sense it was decided ‘before all worlds.’ But one of the things taken into account in deciding it, and therefore one of the things that really cause it to happen, may be this very prayer that we are now offering.” – Prayer, by Philip Yancey quoting C.S.Lewis, Miracles pg. 185-6
Prayer:“Father I pray for the Apostle Paul, as he requested so many years ago, that your words spoken through him will have free course to spread, glorifying God in my life and in my world! Amen!”
— fritz@langgang.com
Patrikin - Kinship through The Father 
Thanks, Becky, for your comments.
I do wonder about this idea. I have found myself in the position of forgetting to pray for someone during a surgery or other specific event and prayed after the fact in a “better late than never” notion. It works, but the way in which I really feel this timelessness is when I think of my grandmothers. One I was very close to, and the other died when I was an infant. I know a lot of details about some of the hard times they faced as younger women, though, and sometimes I like to pray for those moments. The outcome is clearly decided, and I don’t pray to change that outcome; I pray for peace for them in hardship, and strength through challenges. For example, I like to pray for my Mema, for when she quit smoking. I know how hard that was for me to give up and it gives me a closeness to her to be praying now for her to have the strength to fight that addiction. It makes me think of the “communion of saints.” They are gone on to heaven and I am here, yet in God’s eyes, we are both living the lives He gave us and walking the streets of gold with Him. It boggles my mind.