Keep Applying the Drops
(A Lesson on Prayer)
Jeremiah
33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and
mighty things, which thou knowest not.
This week I was sick with
two different things at the same time both connected with
breastfeeding my baby. I got a breast infection and thrush. When I
got the breast infection, I also got a fever and my whole body felt
sore. At first I thought I only had thrush, so I got my midwife to
get me a prescription for some drops to treat it. But later on I
realized that I had an infection aswell, which is why I had a fever.
When my husband came home from work in the afternoon, he went to the
supermarket and brought some ibuprofen and paracetamol to help the
fever. I felt so sick, cold and sore before taking it, but within an
hour of having some tablets I felt 100% better. I could feel my fever
had broken and I felt like getting out of bed. I was amazed at what a
difference the tablets made and how quickly they worked. I realized I should have brought some
first thing then I wouldn't have had such a difficult day.
But the treatment for
thrush was another story. I couldn't see the drops working. It is now
4 days later and it still hasn't cleared up, although it is getting
better. I sometimes felt like it was a waste of time to put the drops
on the thrush because it didn't seem to be working, whereas the
ibuprofen and paracetamol worked nearly straight away and had obvious
results. I had to have faith that the drops would work over time
because that's what my midwife had prescribed for me.
God used this to teach me
a lesson on prayer. I have been struggling lately with praying about
certain things. I have no problem praying for things that I will see
God answer reasonably soon. It's easy to pray for a need that I have
because God often answers pretty quick and it's obvious that God has
answered my prayer. Just like ibuprofen and paracetamol can make you
feel better fast, so God answers some prayers very quickly.
But then there are other
things that I find difficult to pray for. For example, people's
salvation. We can pray for a long time for a person and see no
results. It seems like it's a waste of time to pray. Do you ever feel
like this? We might pray for a certain person to be changed, and yet
no matter how much we pray it doesn't seem to do any good. We feel
like giving up. My husband has been praying so faithfully for some
people every night and so far we haven't seen those prayers answered.
Sometimes I think, “What's the point?”
But just like all
medicines don't take the same time to heal, some prayers take a long
time to be answered. Some prayers take years, but we shouldn't give up praying! Just because we see no
results right now doesn't mean that God isn't working.
God has promised that He
does hear and answer prayer. He has given us so many promises in the
Bible. He doesn't always answer our prayers the way we expect, but he
does promise to answer.
This
lesson was a big encouragement to me to keep applying the 'drops' of
prayer! Because it will work in God's time.
