Unrelenting Prayer

So sorry I haven't blogged in forever. Life has been moving so fast! Can't believe it's almost October of 2011. Crazy. I've been reading Unrelenting Prayer by Bob Sorge for school and it was so good that I thought I would quote it here. =)

God bears long with His beloved elect because He has strategic purposes in the wait. We must become convinced that God has redemptive purposes in waiting to avenge us against our adversaries. He waits to show his wrath and his glory, to accelerate our learning, to shape and deepen our faith, and to produce patience in us among others.
He uses the waiting season to accelerate your learning curve. When God wants to put you on the fast track, He brings everything in your life to a grinding halt. Everything stops and all you can do is wait on him. To do the quickest work in you, God waits. He puts you in His crucible, sticks you into the fire, turns the flame on high, and then says, "Wait on me." There, in that place of intense heat and pressure, He will change you fare more effectively than if there were no fire. Through the crucible, God can do a deeper and more comprehensive work within you in 3 years than in 15 years with no pressure.
Waiting has a way of changing everything about you. I said to the Lord, "Okay, Lord, if You're so intent on changing me, go ahead and deal with the matter at hand. I realize You want to touch my pride. So lets stay on task and deal with my pride." I could imagine him responding, "Yes, Bob, I'm going to deal with your pride. But I'm also going to visit a host of other issues in your soul at the same time." When God has us waiting on Him, he messes with every compartment in our being. He leaves no stone unturned. He starts at A and doesn't give up until He's made it all the way to Z.
But I complained, "Lord, this doesn't have anything to do with A or Z. You're dealing with P right now. you're after my pride. Deal with P, and then let's move on to Kingdom exploits." He came right back, "Oh yes, we'll take care of P, all right. But while we've got you here, let's go ahead and hit everything else while we're at it." He uses the crucible to change everything about you, so that you might be conformed to the image of Christ. And how does he accomplish this? Simply by bearing long with you.
God doesn't seem to be quite in the rush that we are. He has taken an eternity to get to this point, and He knows He has an eternity ahead of Him. So if He takes, as in the case of Abraham, 25 years to birth your destiny, then what's the big deal? When you look at how God wrote the stories of His greatest saints-like Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Hannah, Naomi, David, Jeremiah, and many others-one of the common denominators of their lives is how God took many years to craft and complete the story of their lives.
On one occasion, when I was keenly feeling both the duration and the pain of the wait, I asked the Lord to hurry up and finish His work in my life. That's when I heard, "I call fast boring." God is a good Author, and He likes a good plot. He's into dramatic flair, story lines with mounting tension, and climactic conclusions. He wants to build some suspense into your story, together with some intrigue, and a good splash of romance. By the time He's finished writing the story of your life, Joseph won't be the only one with a tale to tell. You'll also be able to say, "Let me tell you about the time....."
God doesn't measure the journey in days or weeks or months. He shapes the broad strokes of your life with a brush called "years". So when it seems that God is taking years to complete His work in your life, don't be alarmed or thrown off balance. Stay in the place of persevering prayer, and pace yourself for a lifetime of adventure with God.

Isn't that good? =) God is so good to us! He waits on us because He wants to make us more like him and knows we can't handle the answer if he gives it to us when we want it. God is so faithful to our hearts!!!!