If you’ve been praying a long time for something, hear these words from Bryan Chapell:
The prophet Habakkuk begins his prophecy with the question, “How long, O LORD, must I call for help?” (Hab. 1:2). The prophet Daniel, who was delivered from the lions’ den, waited forty years for the conversion of the pagan king he served. Sarah miraculously conceived at the age of ninety-nine, but she had waited many years for God to fulfill this promise of a single covenant child. God did not fulfill his promise to make Abraham a father of many nations in his lifetime (and is still fulfilling that promise as he extends the gospel to all nations). Year after year Hannah went to the temple to ask God for a child before God answered her prayer. Naaman, the Syrian, had to dip seven times in the Jordan before his leprosy was removed. The psalmist confesses, “Save me, O God. . . . I am worn out calling for help” (Ps. 69:1, 3). Often those the Bible commends for their great faith did not receive an immediate answer to prayer.
Faithful prayer is not marked by the immediacy of answers as much as by persistent petition.
———-
Bryan Chapell, Praying Backwards (pp. 122-123). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (emphasis added)
