Prayer and People

FAMILY AND FRIENDS

One concern we have as Christians is our unsaved relatives. This rings true for many of us, but it hits home to me personally. I was born on my Grandfather’s fiftieth birthday. To top it off, we look alike (or would if there wasn’t a 50 year gap) We have many similar tastes and share a sense of humor. I often pray for my Grandfather. He is dear to me, and often on my mind. I pray for his Salvation, that he might come to Christ before his death. I know God is faithful and hears prayer. I also believe that the fervent prayer of a righteous man is effective in other people’s lives. I deeply believe that God can hear the prayers of all His people regardless of the time that the prayer is prayed. That is why I still pray for my Grandfather’s Salvation five years after his death.
But wait, you say. Praying for the Salvation of a dead man? Isn’t it too late for him now? Well, good question. And quite frankly, yes. It is too late for him now. So why do I continue to pray?

The answer is in the question. Specifically in the word now. We humans are so bound by time we forget how little time matters to God. The prayer I pray today reaches God just as instantly  and at the same moment as the prayer I prayed as a small child (like when I needed to roll a six to win a game of Trouble) and the final prayer I will pray before I die. All of these prayers are before God. He isn’t waiting for my final prayer, He hears it. Nor is it that He only heard my past prayers as a child. These prayers are there with my prayer today and ten years from now. Indeed all that I am is already before the Father, my beginning to my end. My entire being is known to Him, better than it is even know to me.
So when I pray for my Grandfather now, I don’t pray for him to now become a Christian. I pray that he will in the past. To God it does not make any difference when I pray this prayer. There is no deadline for when my prayers will change the life my Grandfather lived. I believe the prayers I pray now affect my Grandfather’s life just as much as those prayed while he was still here on Earth.
This is why I believe that it is important to continue to pray for our family and friends even though we do not see results. God can see the result, even if it is in our future. Or the past. In God’s perspective it makes little difference. His timing is perfect and the prayers we pray do can be used by God in whatever way honors His name.

CONCLUSION 

So does this mean I believe we can be saved after we die? No, that is not what I am saying at all. What I am saying is that no matter when we pray, all time is before God; past, present, and future. I believe the prayer I pray now can affect what happens tomorrow and also what happened a decade ago.