In today’s age, even the microwave sometimes seems not quick enough (“It’ll take at least 3 whole minutes to warm this stuff up!”). We think so consistently about minutes and hours that we have forgotten completely years and eternity. We have so made an art of the gratification of our flesh that we pride ourselves in being able to do it “instantly”. We apply our creative minds toward inventing new things that will satisfy our “necessary” needs quicker, more effectively, with more fun, sounds and colors.

God’s economy is very different. He is after things which will last forever; and video games, fast cars and fast food are not on His “Top-10” list. We have made an altar to the god of convenience and entertainment and gleefully offer human sacrifices upon it. It may not appear as gruesome or bloody as the pagan rituals of the past, but our souls and the souls of our children are being equally affected upon it. Preoccupation of the soul clogs our ability to engage, much less wait upon, the Spirit of Holiness who yearns jealously for us.

This can be one of the “giants” of choosing to take prayer seriously. What a farmer sows in his field today he does not expect tomorrow to bring forth a harvest. A process must take place. A growth and maturation of sorts must be waited upon. Any truncation of this process will only result in an empty field on harvest day.

Our souls are like that field in which we sow seeds of prayer. If we understand the process, we save ourselves unnecessary frustration and grumbling. “What a man sows, he will reap.” That is the Word of God, Galatians 6:7. Is your prayer for wisdom and understanding? Is it for patience? Strength to overcome temptation or addiction? Sow those seeds of desire into your soul in the time of breaking up the fallow ground and watch what God does in the meantime. Underground, in the unseen depths of your soul, He is geminating a seed that will be properly rooted and that will endure the hot sun, the flooding rains and the trampling beasts. It will, in fact, endure into eternity.

Call it strategic delay. Call it the tempering and training of malformed and unrestrained souls. I call it God’s wisdom and I am trusting that His wisdom (and mine in agreeing to it) will be justified by our children (also the Word of God, Matthew 11:19).