We pray before we eat. Before our days begin. Before we go to sleep. Often, we pray before big events and decisions. We pray as loved ones face difficulties. But we don’t have to stop there.
We can keep praying after.
God doesn’t say “cease praying” after the test results suggest the worst or the conversation ends terribly or the morning rush causes us to forget what we even read in the Bible that morning.
In our limited sense of time, praying after things seem “finished” can feel futile.
We sometimes act like prayer has a deadline before it’s “too late.”
Because, really….why pray about something that has already happened?
Can the Lord change even that which is in retrospect? Is He sovereign over history when it’s already been written? Scripture doesn’t suggest God retroactively answers prayers or puts us all in a supernatural time machine to perform miracles past (though God did turn back time once!)
Unlike our concept of “changers” in sci-fi movies that erase and replant memories to “change history, “the Lord is in the business of changing hearts. And while that may not change what has already happened, it does change our perspective. That makes all the difference.
Just because something is over to us doesn’t mean God’s done working it into good.
After you complete that nerve-wracking conversation, pray. Turn to the Lord. He can work in your heart to use that conversation for good. He does, after all, work all things together for the good of those who love Him according to His will and great purposes (Romans 8:28.)
He can also change the heart of the one you spoke to. Or the loved one who faced the tragedy. And even the course of that decision you made that you’re not so sure about.
IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO TURN TO THE LORD.
That should affect how we live in this world and how we relate to others. Forgiveness is all the more possible when we live according to the truth:
Grace has no expiration date. Click To TweetSo pray after it all goes crazy, it all goes well, and you have no idea how any of it could go anywhere.
He remains faithful and is reigning over it all- past, present, and future.
“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.” –1 Chronicles 29:11
{A version of this post originally appeared on First and Second blog}
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This is such a great alternative to the “Prayer as check list” approach to our relationship with God. In all my most important relationships, we talk everything over, and I always do a “post mortem” on things even with committees I’m on . May we truly enter into our relationship with God so that talking things over with Him –before, during, and after–becomes second nature!
Amen, Michele! I would love for it to be second nature for me to dwell on and process things with God like I do with my loved ones.
This is such a great message, Bethany. Love this thought, “Just because something is over to us doesn’t mean God’s done working it into good.” And I adore the idea that grace doesn’t have an expiration date…because it doesn’t!
Thank you for this fresh insight today!
Ditto on all of that. That really stuck out to me also! I’ve found that when I pray without ceasing, I’m often more energized and spiritually alert.
I’m so glad God’s Grace doesn’t have an expiration date too!
Great thoughts to encourage us to keep praying no matter the outcome. It’s so true that God continues to work in and through our situations!!
He never stops working! So thankful!
Bethany, we are so limited in our perspective. We need God’s eternal viewpoint. I love the promise that He works all things, even our fiascos, together for the good of those who love Him. Great post! Great hope!
Thank Debbie! Glad we have this hope in Him!
Bethany, thanks for this reminder about being persistent in prayer. I love this : “So pray after it all goes crazy, it all goes well, and you have no idea how any of it could go anywhere.” Well said!
Happy to remind, I need to remember this too!
Wonderful message, Bethany. God does, indeed, tell us to pray without ceasing. I need the reminder at times!
Me too, Laurie! Thank you!
Amen. laurensparks.net
Thanks for this encouragement to keep praying, Bethany! Often we feel like it’s over but for God it is still the middle of the story and he can still turn it around and work good in it.
So true, Lesley! For God it is not the end of the story.
Such a powerful post, Patricia! I was just talking to much husband about a prayer that seems to have gone unanswered and whether it or not is “too late”. I just need to keep praying because God knows the end from the beginning in every situation.
Peace and grace,
Tammy
Amen, Tammy! God knows the beginning from the end.
Hi Bethany! Love your reminder that God is still working on us even when we think we’re done! Also thrilled to reconnect here with you after I took a blogging break! Blessings!
Hi Allison! Glad you’re back from your break!! And glad God is still working!