Pray for things that you may never live long enough to see
In my prayer life, I realize I had been very limiting in what I prayed for. I was praying only for things that could happen in my lifetime. It simply never occurred to me to pray for things beyond that. That is incredibly short-sighted.
When reading the Bible, there are many examples of people's prayers being answered - but this happened after the person passed away, so they never got to see it themselves. Does that mean the prayer wasn't answered? No! The prayer was answered. The answer had nothing to do with whether the person praying was there to observe it or not.
Let's take a look at an example. This occurred in the Old Testament when Abimelech tried to establish a monarchy over Shechem. To do so, he killed all his brothers (who could otherwise challenge his rule) except for one, Jotham, who hid from him. The people of Shechem declared him their ruler, but his brother Jotham spoke out bravely to the crowd. He asks if the crowd if they have honored his father Jerubbaal with this decision, and adds that if they have not acted in good faith and honor, let fire come from Abimelech and devour the citizens of Shechem, and fire come from the citizems of Schechem and devour Abimelech. Here we start with Jotham speaking to the crowd:
if you then have acted in good faith and honor with Jerubba′al and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abim′elech, and let him also rejoice in you; but if not, let fire come out from Abim′elech, and devour the citizens of Shechem, and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the citizens of Shechem, and from Beth-millo, and devour Abim′elech.” And Jotham ran away and fled, and went to Beer and dwelt there, for fear of Abim′elech his brother.
Judges 9: 19-21
Notice that at the end of the speech, Jotham ran away to hide again from his brother. It may have seemed
to everyone that the prayer was not answered. Three years passed. Then,
the prayer was answered, as we will see in this Bible verse:
And Abim′elech came to the tower, and fought against it, and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. And a certain woman threw an upper millstone upon Abim′elech’s head, and crushed his skull. Then he called hastily to the young man his armor-bearer, and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest men say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’” And his young man thrust him through, and he died. And when the men of Israel saw that Abim′elech was dead, they departed every man to his home. Thus God requited the crime of Abim′elech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers; and God also made all the wickedness of the men of Shechem fall back upon their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubba′al.
Judges 9: 52-57
So three years later, the prayer was answered. Even though the timing of the prayer was not necessarily what Jotham or the people of Shechem had anticipated, it was in fact answered. The timing of the prayer is up to God, not up to you. It doesn't mean it's not answered if it doesn't happen instantly.
This makes sense, because God will answer prayers that are consistent with His will. We don't necessarily know how or when, but we do know that He will answer those prayers. The timing may even be after we die. That also makes sense - it's not like the prayer is any less powerful if we aren't around to see the result!
And if we are praying for others, if we expect to see the answer ourselves then we're guilty of making it about us rather than about the other person. If we are truly making it about praying for someone else, the timing of the result should not be based on what we ourselves are able to see. For example, what would happen if you dropped dead tomorrow? It's not like your prayers for others expire at that point, after all! The prayers are independent of whether we live long enough to see the result in our lifetime.
So don't limit yourself as I had done. Instead pray for things that may be beyond your lifetime. Even if you are practically certain the thing is beyond your lifetime it should not dissuade you from praying for it. The prayer is not any less worthwhile if you don't get to see the result. Let God be the decider of how and when to answer your prayers. Your job is to pray.
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