As a kid, I was taught that God answers our prayers either yes, no or wait. For some reason, I translated this to rankings like grades on a report card. If an answer was yes, that meant my prayer was perfect and God rewarded me with my well-deserved A. Lorraine prays excellent prayers. The no answer wasn’t the worst answer, it was more like the needs-to-improve comment on a report card. Lorraine could do better if she prayed harder. The failing grade went to the wait answer. Lorraine is not trusting God enough; otherwise, he would listen to her prayers and answer them.

Waiting has never been an easy part of life for me. Whether it's lines at the airport, at the grocery store or even slow traffic--think road construction on Gary or that downtown Sandbergs-to-Starbucks reno, waiting often seems like a big waste of time. This does not help me to accept the waiting part of prayer with open arms.

However, waiting is a passing grade, especially when we pass through valleys where deadly shadows lurk or tread on paths brightly lit with fiery trials and learn that God—the eternally existent one, the creator of all that exists, the one whom myriads and myriads of angel worship—this God hears our prayers in the shadows and trials.

King David learned that and wrote in Psalm 31:21-22, “Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. I had said in my alarm, ‘I am cut off from your sight.’ But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.” God not only heard David’s fretful prayers but also showed up with his steadfast love in the besieged city—not just after the fact or after the answer to an A-quality prayer but during the attacks and alarm.

Like David, we learn lessons from waiting. As we wait for answers to our prayers, sometimes patiently, sometimes not, we learn to trust God when we are afraid (Psalm 57:1). In Psalm 31:24, David says, “Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord.” Take courage as we wait in silence and weariness through the unknowns of life, and learn that our only hope is in God and his salvation (Psalm 62:5; 69:3). There is one last lesson from the psalmist: It really isn’t about specific answers to specific prayers. It’s about God’s steadfast love, and waiting on his name for it is good (Psalm 52:8-9).

When we think about it, as followers of Christ, our entire lives are waiting. We’ve accepted the invitation to the wedding feast, but we aren’t seated at the table yet. We have tasted and seen the Lord's goodness, but it’s a sampling of the realities that await us when we see him face-to-face.

For now, let’s make it clear that through the valley and shadows, on the path with its fiery trial, we are seeking our homeland, because “we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)