When people have massive headaches, they may take medicine for the pain. They know that it’ll take time for the medication to take effect, so they wait and trust that the medicine will work. Even if it takes a second dose, they believe the pain will soon subside. 

When facing painful situations in our lives that we have no control over, we pray for the circumstances to change. If they don’t immediately change, do we get discouraged? If our situation goes on for any length of time, we often assume that God has not heard our prayers or that He has turned a deaf ear to them. We begin to think that our prayers are ineffective. 

Isn’t it sad that we can be patient as we wait for medicine to kick in, but we have no ability to trust God when painful situations take longer than expected to resolve? Our prayers are heard, and they are always answered, but not on our timetable. Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes no, and sometimes wait. How silly it would be to take medicine for a headache and then proclaim five minutes later that it didn’t work. So, don’t give up before your breakthrough. Your answer is on the way.