I have always wondered what effect prayer had on the physical world. Most people who pray for things, subconsciously assume that prayer is effective, without really thinking about it. If they didn't think that, why would they pray? Now if they are just praying, instead of praying for something, they may think prayer is required by God, and will be rewarded after death. This is where standard pre-composed prayers are used, especially by people with a Catholic perspective. But praying for something implies that one expects their prayer, and therefore God, to make a difference in their situation.
This is a Biblical idea, "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective," (James 5:16) at least in regard to healing. So if prayer is affecting the outcome, via God's intervention, is that by nature a miracle? I have long believed that God was primarily at work on earth through the seemingly random things in life, that mankind has not yet learned to quantify or predict. I am confident that he can also work in more direct ways that violate known physical laws, but that this is not nearly as common.
What about praying about something that is predetermined, but unknown from our perspective? Can God "change" the past, if we don't know what it is yet? Imagine putting dice in a cup, shaking them, and slapping it down on the table, leaving the cup there. The outcome of that action is set physically, but we don't yet know what it is. So can God still change the outcome until after we lift the cup to see the results on the dice?
Another example would be someone recording a sporting event on tape while they are unable to watch it live. Then while they are watching the playback later, the outcome is unknown to them. So can praying that their team wins have any effect in the outcome, since it is not yet determined from their perspective.
The idea sort of presupposes that the world revolves around us, but in the context of our relationship with God, maybe it does. "All things work together for the good of those who love God" (Romans 8:28) Now this doesn't truly matter in the simple scenarios I have been illustrating it with, but what about questions like, has my cancer gone away completely? It is either there or its not, but even after a scan is done, until the results are revealed, the outcome is unknown to us, and therefore changeable from our perspective. And if God already knows the outcome of all things, then anything we pray about is pre-determined, and only variable from our perspective. But I figure we should keep praying about it anyway.
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