We live in a society that expects instant self-gratification. Fast food and fast cars are just part of life lived in the fast lane. Many of us have forgotten how to be patient. If you don’t believe me, try sitting at a stop light a few seconds after the light turns green. Odds are there will be horns blaring all around you. And when it comes to prayer, I suspect many of us are as impatient as those angry drivers.

    I will admit that I’m guilty of honking my horn after I pray. On days when I feel the overwhelming pressures of raising five children (three of which are teenagers), I often kneel in prayer fervently on their behalf. If my prayer isn’t answered in a few weeks, or months, or years, that’s when I lay down on the horn.

    “Don’t you hear me God?” I wonder. But even as I ask, I know He does.

    When our identical twin boys were about four years old, they planted some apple seeds beneath our deck. When they told me they were growing apple trees under the deck I couldn’t help but smile.

    “How nice,” I said. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that without the benefit of the sun and the rain there was no way those seeds were going to sprout.

    A few minutes later they went running back outside.

    “Where are you going?” I called after them.

    “Were going to see if our trees have growed up yet!” they shouted.

    They really believed it could happen that fast.

With enough faith we can rest assured...

    Now while it seems silly to think you could grow a tree the same day you plant the seed, don’t we do the same thing with prayer? We talk to God. We thank Him for our blessings. We ask for something, and then we start looking for the apple tree! Forgetting that the sun has to shine, the clouds have to bring rain, and sometimes we have to wait. And if the tree never appears in the spot where we planted the seeds, we have to remember that the wind and rain may have carried them somewhere else. With enough faith we can rest assured that somewhere there is an apple tree growing.

    So if you wanting to lay on the horn with God about your prayers that seem stopped at the light, let’s have a little refresher course on what did Jesus say about prayer?

    That we are to pray in private.

“But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6)