The Prayer Patience Intersection

For some reason, I have been thinking about two very powerful spiritual concepts, patience and prayer. The Senior Pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church, Frederick Douglass Haynes III, recently made a statement from the pulpit that sort of capsulated my thoughts. He said, “There is no such thing as an emergency in eternity.” It appears for those who claim Christianity that time, God’s time, must somehow be reconciled with man’s time. Prayer seems to provide the mechanism we think we can accomplish this.

There is no such thing as an emergency in eternity.

In today’s so-called fast-paced world, we tend to want what we want now, immediately, including those things that we ask God for. At times, we rush to be delivered from, sent to, get ours, or solve whatever. As if God operated

On our time schedule, we can question God’s judgment based on the amount of time He answers or doesn’t answer our entreaties. We even evaluate prayer by how long it takes to hear from God as determined by our body clocks. Many want to treat this situation as if God was on call awaiting our text. I’ve come to understand that through prayer and legitimate belief in God’s power, eventually, you will get your answer. It will be the right one, and it will be right on time.

Think about it. How many things can you look back over your own life and thank God that you didn’t get even though you begged and pleaded for it? Was it a job? Maybe a spouse, some man, or some woman you couldn’t live without? Now, through hindsight, it turns out that the best thing that could have happened did happen. How often can you say that had you gotten what you prayed for when you prayed for it, it is now a certainty that you were indeed not ready for it? Can you spell disaster? Through prayer, I’ve come to know that one of the beautiful things about the Lord is that He will bless you with what you need, when and only when He knows you can handle it, or should I say appreciate it?

We’ve all been told at one time or another that God won’t put anything on us that we can’t handle. I personally know and can testify that you cannot prove that by me. Many times, I have known that I could not make it to another day. I’ve known on plenty of occasions that another further I just couldn’t go, only to find myself by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit, that when the sun came up the next day, so did I.At these times, you begin to realize that the key is to leave it alone after you’ve placed it in the hands of God. Let go and let God. Jesus did the dirty work. Now, all you have to do is remember why.

“He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know the times or the dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…” Acts 1:7-8. This power I believe, is evident when patience and prayer come together and reveal to you that there is a divine reason for you to experience what it is that you, we, go through daily. Without trials and tribulations, there can be no wisdom. Unless you submit to the will of God, there can be no salvation. Without salvation, prayers cannot be answered. So when you want God to hurry up because you are about to “lose your mind up in here, ”that’s proof you’re not ready. My testimony tells me that until I could and did give it all to God, I couldn’t appreciate anything He might have for me. Like Abraham, a ram appears in the bush only with total belief in the Father. May you always find your ram, and May God always bless and keep you always.

This column is from “Spiritually Speaking: Reflections for and from a New Christian” by James Washington. You can purchase this enlightening book on Amazon and start your journey towards spiritual enlightenment.

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