One of my most favourite plants that I had in BC was a Clematis. I loved seeing it bloom into purple flowers twice a year, early spring and late summer. So three years ago, just after I moved into my current house, which had an unfinished yard, the first perennial plant I bought was a Clematis. However, for the first three summers, there were no flowers, even though the plant looked healthy and was growing rapidly. So this spring, I contemplated digging the plant up, throwing it away, and getting another one. When I approached the non-flowering Clematis with a shovel in my hand, I thought, "I sure wish the plant was dead; it would make it easier for me to accomplish this murderous task." As I looked again at the Clematis with its multitude of green buds, my frustrations and disappointments seemed to disappear as hope set in once again. I decided I would give the plant another chance. I am sure glad I did. The Clematis is now loaded with beautiful purple blooms. I took a picture of it this morning.
In the Christian life, prayer is sometimes like that as well. We pray to God for a miracle with hope, eagerly waiting for the answer. When the answer doesn't come right away, we pray again, and hope some more. This can continue for what seems like an eternity, until we begin to loose hope and pray with less faith. Finally, we contemplate abandoning our belief that God is even going to answer our prayer. We give up, when in fact the answer to our prayer is just just around the corner, ready to bloom into beautiful blossoms. We never see the miracle because we discarded our prayer, ending it's power to see the answer fulfilled.
"Rejoice in our confident hope.
Be patient in trouble,
and keep on praying."
Romans 12:12 (NLT)
When there is prayer with hope, the life and power of that prayer continues even when the answer is not yet seen for years to come.
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