The Three Ps: How to Find Gifts While You’re Still Praying
The gift of growing older in Christ is that I can look back now on seasons of prayer and trace what God has done.
At times, there were prayers answered so quickly it made my head spin:
Please let the baby sleep through the night.
Please help me find my car keys.
Lead me to just the right dress that fits, flatters, and happens to be on sale.
And other prayers, well, some of those I’m still praying. Maybe you, too?
For a loved one to know Jesus. For a marriage to be salvaged. For healing from sickness or disease. For a wayward adult child.
Like a patient, loving father, God hears us. But sometimes his answer is, “Wait.”
In the last year, I saw God answer two specific prayers for two specific people—petitions I’d laid at his feet and cried out through Scripture for over twenty years. And like only he can do, he wove these answers together in a way I could not have imagined.
This is not a pat on my back for praying. This is a testimony, a witness, a glorious hands-in-the-air praise break to the One who was always listening. The One whose ways are so much higher than mine.
Not only am I grateful for these answered prayers, but for the gifts he gave me through the waiting—gifts of patience, persistence, and perspective.
Patience: Discovering Grace in Years-Long Prayers
What I see as I look back through my journals is God slowly, steadily, developing my prayer muscles. Like doing daily sets of ten reps with weights, every written prayer, every Scripture copied, strengthened my faith—and my understanding of Who I was praying to.
My heartfelt prayers, often tinged with impatience, gradually softened into a waiting trust as I discovered God’s unchanging character and promises kept. Would these muscles have become as strong if the answers had come immediately?
These long-term prayers slowed me down and taught me how to exchange my own agenda for God’s perfect timing.
Persistence: Learning to Keep Showing Up
I’ll be honest, there were times when I wondered if it was worth it. If these prayers would ever be answered. I was tired, and I felt like God was surely tired of hearing the same thing over and over.
But prayer became a practice that filled me, something that was obvious when I didn’t partake. Even when it seemed there was no response, God was doing something—in me.
I kept coming back with these specific requests, bringing all my other cares along with them. He comforted me in my distress about unrelated matters, teaching me that meeting with him was valuable in itself, even when I didn’t see an answer.
What I had treated as a heavenly vending machine became a humbling, holy friendship. Persistent prayer kept my heart connected to God’s, which in turn sustained me in the waiting.
Perspective: Seeing God’s Work in New Ways
One of these specific, long-term prayers was for the salvation of my 24-year-old son. He was raised in a Bible-believing Christian home by a mother (that would be me) who maybe secretly wanted the credit for anything good in the life of her child. I couldn’t see this until I saw my son saved so powerfully, so completely, so passionately, that only God could get the glory. His ways are so much better!
The other long-term prayer was for my husband, for a fresh spark of faith to ignite his heart. Can you guess what God used to light it up?
The salvation of our son.
Isn’t God beautiful? Isn’t God marvelous? He is the great weaver who takes the threads of our prayers, our people, and our circumstances, and braids his golden grace throughout to create a tapestry for his glory.
This fresh perspective, cultivated through patience and persistence, provides me with hope for other prayers yet unanswered.
I’m thankful for the prayers answered within minutes. I’m thankful for the “yeses” that took decades to arrive. And I’m thankful for God’s answers yet to come, because I know they will be right on time.
He has made everything beautiful in His time.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV
Meet Cheryl Esper Balcom
Cheryl Esper Balcom is the author of Winds of Grace: Losing My Father, Surrendering Control, and Growing in Faith (available on Amazon.com). Cheryl also helps readers find grace in every word at cherylesperbalcom.com. She and her husband have been married for 33 years and have four grown children. They live in lovely southwest Michigan, where they enjoy watching wildlife wander through the yard.
Where to find her . . .
Begin Within is a series to inspire a year-round lifestyle of gratitude that will impact not only your own life, but the lives of your neighbors as well. Gratitude is a theme we talk about often around here because it ties so closely into other missional living rhythms. Practicing gratitude reminds to keep our hearts soft and expectant and our eyes open. Therefore, the more we embrace gratitude, the easier it becomes to truly see our neighbors and where we can join what God is already doing in our neighborhoods.
If you would like to contribute to Begin Within, you can find the submission guidelines here.
