I wish there was an instant option for answered prayer. It would be much more convenient to have our prayers answered in a microwaveable way. God can’t complete His desired work in us if we only get instant answers to our prayers. We just have to keep on praying.
Colossians 4:2 ESV “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
So, like you, I’d much rather have the option to skip, like on a form you fill out online, the patience part of prayer. Whether we like it or not, patience is a necessary part of our prayer life. Patience will produce a strength in us that can’t be formed instantly.
Patiently hang on
James 1:2-4 NKJV “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
Hang on patiently (click on the link for a recent message on the subject), and you’ll see something perfect formed in your life. In the above verse, where it says “let patience have its perfect work,” it’s describing what patience can do in and through us. Plainly speaking, it means to keep on praying.
When the work of patience is complete, it will furnish all that is necessary for our Christian race and warfare. We should not pray so much for the removal of affliction, as for wisdom to make a right use of it.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary of the Whole Bible
There’s something good that comes out of every difficulty. God doesn’t author things to destroy us, Satan does (see John 10:10 and John 6:33). But, God does use everything for our benefit. There have been many times I’ve struggled with one thing or another. But after the dust has settled, I realized that God used the situation for my good.
Continue, keep on praying. God will bring something out of the situation that only patience, if allowed to work, will produce.
