Prayer focused on changing the past

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Yeoman

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I know that this is an extremely odd question, but is it morally licit to petition God to change a decision a person made in the past, assuming that the prayer isn’t to reverse a decision to enter into sin, which would have its own odd dimensions.

That is, can a person licitly petition to cause God, who is outside of time, intervene in a past decision and change it.

I know, of course, that that’s asking for a miracle, but people do that all the time. A retrospective act like that is something I’ve never heard of people seeking, but I’m wondering if it’s beyond the Pale as a petition. If not, does anyone know of a person making such a petition and representing it as granted?
 
Interesting question, I’ve seen it before some time back, but not sure where it was.
As it happens, (assuming I’ve understand you correctly) we’re not really meant to ask for prayers that change a known event. Say you have a loved one driving home in bad weather. Halfway through their journey, you say a prayer asking God to get them home safely. Perhaps they would have already crashed if you hadn’t said that prayer in the present time, but as a result they’re still safe. This is licit. However if you knew they’d had a crash, you couldn’t then petition God to change the past.
The reason for this is because when we pray, what we should be adding (but generally it’s understood) is “but Thy will, not mine, be done”. This is fine if you don’t know God’s will, which for the majority of the time we don’t, but if the event’s already happened, then it’s understood that it was God’s will that it happened, and to pray otherwise would be to put ourselves in opposition to God.
Hope that helps!
 
Just as an aside, did you know that this is your 666th
post?

Changing a past event cannot be accomplished, I feel,
but changing HOW IT AFFECTS you or other people is
very do-able and effective! How an event IMPACTS
history can be very pivotal in seeing God’s Kingdom
benefit!!!
 
If God changed the past, you would probably not know it, because the other event never happened.
 
You can ask God whatever you want. He even knows your petition before you utter it.

And He will answer it.

However, that answer may be “no”. Or it may be “not now”.

I’m assuming here you mean something “she declined my marriage proposal, and I pray that she changes her mind and accepts”.

He of course may decide that she won’t change her mind, or takes many many years to come around 😉
 
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