Waiting for a prayer to be answered can be challenging.

Especially when the prayers involve a loved one, one’s own health, or a long-held dream.

When we don’t hear an immediate answer one way or another, our belief can feel like it’s being chipped away as each day of disappointment leaves us a bit more discouraged.

Which is the way I’ve been feeling for the past few months. Or has it been longer than that? When we are in a spiritual desert, our time of waiting can feel interminable.

Lately, it feels like everything is falling just short of where it needs to be and nothing is quite succeeding.

Sometimes, like the people of Israel when they wandered in the desert, we can forget where we came from and that things were worse then, or we might even begin to fool ourselves into thinking we’d like to go back to the way things were.

On my long walks through the woods with my dogs, I’ve had lengthy conversations with God, questioning everything I’m doing.

When I was trying to decide on the cover for this book, I came across a beautiful photograph of a robin’s nest with a couple eggs against an empty backdrop of blue.

I’m beginning to think this photo is similar to the experience of waiting for an answer to prayer.

Waiting for answers to our prayers is like waiting for the eggs to hatch. We know the lovely eggs contain beautiful birds. The eggs themselves represent our efforts. We’ve done the work. That is just the point. We have done all we can; there is literally nothing more we can do.

That is exactly where we have to let go, step back, and believe.

If we tried to make those eggs hatch before they were ready, we’d have the makings of scrambled eggs, not the beautiful young birds that would eventually stretch their wings and take flight.

We cannot make the eggs hatch before the baby within has fully developed.

We can’t hurry the process.

Everything will come together when it’s fully developed.

While we wait, we must believe that God already has the outcome in order and waiting is time to bring us into a closer, deeper relationship with God.

Can we use this time of waiting to believe the eggs are not empty but already hold the perfect answer to our prayers and that their entrance into our lives will come perfectly formed at just the right time?

What answers are you waiting for today?

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

~Isaiah 40:31

This essay was originally published in God Loves Your Dream, a book of inspirational essays. Get your copy on Amazon.com.