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.