The Time Travel Prayer

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." - 1 Peter 2:9 ESV

I was thinking this morning of what I call the 'Time Travel Prayer'. It is when someone is so invested in how past events may have happened that they ask for prayer that God would somehow change them but they are so emotionally energized that they are blind to the fact that is what they are asking for.

"Please pray that I didn't drop my car keys in the driveway.'
- or -
'Pray that they got on that bus. It was the last one leaving the city!'
- or even -
'God, I hope what I said went over well with them and they didn't take it the wrong way.'

I understand those prayers. I'm sure I have praying them or ones like them. But, Doesn't this sound so much different?

"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." - Matthew 6:10 ESV

Doesn't Jesus' prayer have a rest in it? It has a confidence that God's Heavenly glory will be made known right down here where we live.

I think it is funny that 1 Peter 2 talks about the priesthood but it doesn't mention anything about prayer. The new testament priest are to 'proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light'.

"Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." - 1 Peter 2:10-12 ESV

There is a peace in knowing that whatever may have happened, no matter how devastating it might be, God made excellent decisions long before that event. Before time was recorded God set a plan in motion that had our past, present and future in plain view when it was constructed.

There is a rest in knowing that we can live now and pray for what is about to happen in the very near or very far future and those prayers are heard.

God can help us find our car keys or make some other provision. He is present to protect the traveler. We can call or write a person and communicate love and God can be right in those future words no matter what has gone before.

It was what it was. But we can live as one who have received mercy right now with hope of future visitations from God that redeem whatever has happened in the past.

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