When my youngest daughter turned 14, I began praying for God to help her build self-confidence. Abigail was sweet and thoughtful, but was shy and easily overwhelmed if asked to try something new.
I saw her many talents and longed for Abigail to have the courage to follow her dreams. My prayer: “God, bless my sweet girl with confidence so she’s not afraid of the world around her.”
Silly me, I expected that overnight God would zap Abigail and she’d wake up with big boss girl confidence and energy. It seemed the opposite happened. For a long time, nothing changed. Fear started to bubble under my faith.
Now, I can see where I feared a setback, God was setting up the answer to my prayer.
When Abigail was 16 years old, we had only one vehicle, and I traveled a lot. Since Abbie needed to drive to school, I explained that she’d need to drop me off at the airport several times a month. Abbie was terrified, but there was no choice.
Abigail begged me to drive on that first trip, but I knew she needed to face that fear. She clicked the seatbelt; her eyes glistened with tears. The airport was 45 minutes away in another state. Abigail gripped the steering wheel and navigated busy interstate expressways packed with cars that switched lanes without warning and large semis with no regard for an anxious teen doing brave things.
But my girl did it! Over the next year, Abigail drove me back and forth, even learning to weave in and out of our busy airport’s congested departures and arrivals lanes. I knew she dreaded each trip, but my courageous girl kept showing up.
On one trip, I saw how far she’d come.
Abbie was late picking me up. It was after midnight. I paced back and forth in baggage claim. After a few missed calls, she finally answered her phone. “I’m so sorry, Mom. After studying at Stacy’s house, I saw that our car’s headlight was out. I drove to Walmart, bought a new bulb, and changed it myself in Stacy’s driveway with a flashlight and a YouTube video. I’m leaving now to pick you up, okay?” When she arrived, my sweet girl wasn’t flustered. Instead, she was proud because she figured out a big car problem and fulfilled her responsibility to pick me up.
Look at God! We had one car due to a family crisis, and yet, God used that circumstance to not only answer my prayer but also form a kind of God-confidence in my daughter’s being that reshaped the trajectory of her life. Only God!
Listen to what the prophet Isaiah records as God speaks to His people:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV
Do you know what God has that we don’t have? Spiritual vision.
God can see what we can’t see and know what we don’t know. While we may be praying about our specific situations, God answers our prayers according to His love for us and His eternal plan.
Years ago, I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane while it cruised at 10,000 feet in the air. It was intense! After free-falling for ten seconds, my parachute opened, and as I floated a thousand feet above the ground, I could see the world from a different perspective at ground level. Same with God. He sits high and sees across space and time and into hearts and minds.
In my thinking, God could have fixed Abigail’s confidence problem with just the mighty touch of His hand. After all, nothing is impossible for God. Yet, God saw what I couldn’t see in the bigger picture. He did a deep, lasting work in her, slowly over time.
While God can drop a miracle at any moment, could it be that the slow, steady answer to our persistent prayers is actually the better path for us?
The slow answer to prayer means God deeply transforms our mindset and heart attitudes for lasting obedience.
The slow answer to prayer lets us experience the unwavering faithfulness of God while we wait.
The slow answer to prayer allows unbelievers to witness our journey and see us giving God glory even while we wait.
The slow answer to prayer makes our character stronger and deepens our hope in God.
Where have you been frustrated by a slow answer to your prayers? As you reflect on my Abigail’s journey, can you see where the slow answer to prayer has been a blessing for you?
If you’re struggling with waiting on God, I’d like to pray for you:
God, I pray for my friend, awaiting an answer to prayer. Would you reassure her heart that Your timing is the best? I pray for her to sense Your grace and peace while she waits. Open her eyes to see where You’re working while she’s waiting. Amen.
So true, Barb! My “slow” answer was not getting married until I was 29. I wasn’t one of those that dreamed of my one day wedding yet as my friends got married & had babies I asked God when would it be my turn. My husband is 3 years younger so I definitely had to wait for our ages to not be so far apart & the man of God God was growing him into was certainly worth the wait! One of my buddies from college says waited until she was 60 to marry. Her husband was also worth the wait! Her faithfulness in waiting on God’s timing is also a grand testimony to God’s faithfulness & loving us best! Blessings (((0)))
Hi Ruth, this is so encouraging! Thank you for your comment and I know what you shared will be a blessing to those who read it – especially those who’ve been waiting for God for years.
This was exactly what I needed this morning. God used you to minister to me in my waiting season! What a terrific story of God’s faithfulness and what an encouragement as I pray for my own 16 year old daughter.
Hi Jessica, your daughter is blessed to have a praying mama who is waiting and trusting God with her life. Thanks for joining us today!
barb!! thank you for sharing this and for the awesome prayer that speaks to me in this season. this verse is His gentle reminder that He kindly nudges me with regularly. (it’s also on sticky notes at home and at work.) learn to be patient, so you will please God and be given what He has promised. (heb 10:36 cev) it always comes to my remembrance at those times when i am thinking when, why, or where. thank you, Lord, for your higher perspective and better vision!
Karyn, thank you for sharing your comment. I love that you’ve shared your journey to patience and waiting in prayer. Yes, thank God for His higher perspective and better vision. So good!
It’s easy for me to forget that I’m forged and changed in the waiting. Thank you for this reminder.
Hi Maura, thank you for joining us today! I’m glad this devotion was an encouragement to you!
Dear Barb……I was so glad to see your name on today’s devotion. You always help me in dealing with my “Wait” and today’s was absolutely eye opening. First, I was like your Abigail when I was young. I was afraid of everything it seems. My mother kept encouraging me, but I just couldn’t “grab” it in my heart. It is amazing, but as I got older and still was the sissy that my school friends called me. I cried almost every night and yet I was a very good student and got straight A’s ; however this wasn’t enough for me. I prayed and waited and sure enough months later as I prepared for college, my mind went into a different perspective. While I was scared about college, it was in a different way like the part of your story about Abigail and being late to pick you up because she was replacing a headlight on the car. She still sounded scared when she picked you up at the airport and told you what had happened, but she did do it which was something from God. The same thing happened to me when I got to college and my roommate did not show up. I was alone and frightened and back in the 60’s you were not allowed to see your parents for 2 weeks while you adjusted. Something wonderful happened and our House Mother found another room where her roommate did not show up either and she asked me if I was interested in moving there. Once more, I really didn’t know what to do and I would have to move my “stuff” myself, but I did it and felt better about myself that I could actually do it. This continued when I was done with college and started to look for a job. Over the years I got stronger and stronger as my Holy Spirit was guiding me, but I still did not find my ” dream job”. It took me 19 years to find it,but I am certain that God had his plan and I followed it to the tee and he rewarded me with this job that I worked for 35 years and became a very strong manager. Now I am dealing with another long wait at 77 years old, which you may know about. Mother’s Day weekend was a “Sorrow Season ” for me as I still have not, after 5 years heard from my son and they will not let me see my grandson who was 11 when this season started and is 15 now. My heart breaks every day for communication and will it happen before I leave the Earth? My wait has caused 3 moves, the selling of our home of 40 years and my husband with the violent form of dementia where he tried to kill me. Barb, I will save your devotion and read it every day. I know God works behind the scenes, but this is an emotional heartbreak and I am having trouble getting through this season. Thank you for your prayer for us and I will remember as I re-read your words what Abigail went through. Hope you had a nice Mother’s Day weekend. I send my love and thank you for the (incourage) women’s community. I don’t think I could make it without all of you. Have a Blessed Week………………..Betsy Basile
Betsy, our (in)courage team is holding you close. Our hearts grieve with yours over the sorrow of your broken relationship with your son. We know you miss your grandson tremendously and we pray for God to comfort your heart during this long waiting season. We are glad you are a part of our (in)courage community.
Barb thank you for this excellent devotion you wrote. We as humans all panic in different way when especially God doesn’t answer your prayers as quickly as we want. We want them answered like when we put something in the microwave to heat up or cook in 5 minutes or less it done. We expect that of God when we pray for someone or something close to answer us quickly and not keep us waiting especially if it about a Family not well or Family not saved especially if elderly and got Dementia MS or Me or Heart problems Parkness or Cancer etc it not nice if your saved knowing they are not saved with what wrong with them. You the saved Family member want them saved before they leave earth if especially you have been told they will not get better or only so much time left. You the person in this situation to say why God have you not answered me my loved one getting saved or something else. You the person saved have been praying and praying but you see on answer to your prayers and have ask why God have you not answered my prayers. I know God you can and I believe you will answer them. All you want is for them saved before they pass away no matter how long it should it be short or long. So as when your time up on earth one day too you will see them in Glory also with Jesus to. That has been your prayer and wishes to see them saved before your time up so as you know you will see them again with Jesus and when they pass away you have good memories of them in your heart and that to look forward to even though you will still miss them this side of earth all your days. You know they are stubborn and laugh at your faith and belief in Jesus and the way you pray and read God’s word. They have said good you believe all that stuff and you know you can’t go on and on at them about how important it is to be saved. As then they will tell you of say something like this don’t preach at me. As if you kept doing that you put them further away from believing. They know you are praying for them faithfullybut you don’t see the results. Yes it is annoying and frustrating for you why God has not answered you for them. So you know all you can do is keep praying and believing and just living your life for Jesus in front of them not going on and on at them that they need Jesus in their lives. It har as you can wonder why God is slow to answer you. But you have to keep trusting and praying for them. God sometimes makes you wait no matter what you prayed about even if it any of the things I said here. As God does that to see how strong your faith is in him sometimes in being slow to answer your prayers. It let’s God know even in the waiting you are trusting him no matter how long it is before you get your prayer answered if you do this side earth. You might never get it answered you might not know why until you get to Glory when you time up on earth and all that hard. Or you may see your pray answered but have a long wait to get it answered but still have to keep praying and believing no matter what. When you do get your prayer answered no matter how long you had to wait you can then rejoice. As in another reading I read called Our Daily Bread I can’t remember the date or the year of it. But there was a Mother who prayed over 20 years that was a long time and she never gave praying. She prayed for her son to come to know Jesus and one day after 20 years of believing and never giving up. The Our Daily Bread was on the Kitchen table and what the front cover of it said it convicted this Mother’s son and he gave his life to the Lord. So her years of praying and believing for over 20 were not in vain as God answered her yes the wait was long and this Mother could given up praying and said God not going to answer this prayer for my son so I am going to stop praying and she could have but she didn’t. I am like that with my Dad who has the start of Dementia and not saved he before his memory got like it is today he knew I was praying for his Salvation. He said good you believe all that as he believes you are nothing when you die. But all my life and my Dad I will never stop praying for him as I want nothing from him when his time up on each just to know he is saved before his Dementia get worse that would be the best gift I could give my Dad. So when his memory was ok before being diagnosed with Dementia he laughed at me for saying to him that I was praying for his Salvation and that I wouldn’t ever stop praying for him and his Salvation. If you kept on at him you’d make him cross so all I could do and still do is pray and live my life in front of him. Trusting God he will get saved before his Dementia gets really bad no matter how long it is before my prayer is answered I will keep believing I see him saved one day. Love Dawn Ferguson-Little Co.Fermanagh N.Ireland xx
Dawn, thank you for sharing your commitment to praying for your father and that beautiful story from Our Daily Bread about the mother praying for her son. May we all pray without ceasing because God is faithful and we can trust Him! Praying with you!