Since God is beyond time, can we pray for the past?
What an interesting question! In essence, you are asking if God can change the past. I am reminded of a quote by Billy Graham. He said, “You can’t change the past. But with God’s help you can change the future. No matter what your life has been like so far, God wants to put your feet on a new path . . . a better path . . . His path.” This is a very interesting quote and I believe it is borne out in the scriptures.
Certainly, the Lord can manipulate time for He is the creator of time. In Joshua 10, the Bible tells us of the day when the sun (and time) stopped. The Israelites were fighting the Amorites in Canaan. During the battle, Joshua prayed for the sun and moon to stop, so he would have extra daylight to finish the battle. We read in verses 12-13, “Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And THE SUN STOOD STILL, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So THE SUN STOOD STILL in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.” This event is mentioned in Habakkuk 3:11, “The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear.” For about twenty-four hours, the Lord caused the sun to stand still, thus stopping time while Joshua and the Israelites completely defeated their enemies.
There was also a time when the Lord caused time to go backwards! In 2 Kings 20, King Hezekiah was very sick and was told by the Lord that his time of death was drawing near. After Hezekiah prayed and wept, the Lord promised him fifteen additional years to live. Let’s read 2 Kings 20:8-11, “And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the third day? And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.” How gracious is our Lord that He would do such a great miracle to give assurance to Hezekiah of His promise to extend his life.
Scientists will surely tell us that to stop time, or to reverse time, is impossible. And I would agree to that. However, the Lord is the creator of all things and the Lord of all things. If He can create the world and if He can create time, surely, He can control both according to His will and great power.
With all that said, we do not have a single example where the Lord went back and changed the past after it occurred. While it is true that God is eternal and lives outside the confines of time, we do not. We are instructed in Colossians 4:5, “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.” This shows us the importance of using our time for the Lord. We should ‘redeem’ or use our time wisely. Once a moment is gone, it is gone.
We should not ask the Lord to change the past, but we should ask the Lord to help us deal with the past, react properly to the past, use the past to teach us valuable lessons, etc. May we learn to ask the Lord daily for His guidance for each new day that we are privileged to be a part of. (474.6)