PatienceSample

Patience in prayer

I was recently talking to some friends about dangerous prayers. You know the kind? Where someone prays for God to show them their sin, or to use them. You never know how God will choose to answer these prayers. One of my friends prayed to grow in her patience – only to return to the group the next week and report that God had given her multiple opportunities to exercise patience every day!

But sometimes the patience comes in us persevering in praying for something that God has chosen to answer with, ‘not yet.' In 1 Samuel 1 we read about Hannah who could not have children. She yearned to have a child and so, ‘year by year… she went up to the house of the Lord… And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore’ (1 Samuel 1:7–10). Year by year she returned to the house of the Lord pouring out her pain and struggle, waiting to see if the Lord would fulfill her desire for a child.

Sometimes when I pray, I assume that if a prayer isn’t answered in ‘a timely manner’ that God’s answer is no. I must admit that I don’t often consider it to be an opportunity to grow in my patience, but the encouragement of Hannah is that while we cry out in pain and struggle, we can also be holding on patiently and persisting in prayer. God heard Hannah’s prayer and He chose to bless her with a child. Part of her response is to acknowledge that this child is God’s generous answer to prayer. ‘For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him’ (v27).

What evidence of patience do you see in your life?

Written by KATIE SMITH