In the Christian life there are two things we can yield ourselves to: to God and to righteousness, or to sin and unrighteousness.

Romans 6:12-13, 16

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present [yield] your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present [yield] yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God…

16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

 I want to suggest that when it comes to prayer, we can either yield ourselves to waiting on God and on His timing, or to impatience and not waiting on Him.  These are the two option I want to consider.

  Option #1 – We yield ourselves to waiting on God’s timing.  Catherine Marshall has said, “There is a God-given sequence and rate of growth for everything in His creation.” Just as God has set a timetable for a seed of corn to grow—“…first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear” (Mk. 4:28)—He has created a timetable for everything.  Says Marshall,

 God does have His ‘fullness of time’ for the answer to each prayer.  It follows then that He alone knows the magnitude of the changes that have to be wrought in us before we can receive our hearts desire.  He alone knows the changes and interplay of external events that must take place before our prayer can be answered.

 If this is true, it follows that if we want to follow in His will and see answers to prayer, we must yield ourselves to waiting on His timing.

 Option #2 – We yield to impatience.  Satan knows about God’s timetable; he knows that in His time He will do His work and answer your prayers.  So that’s why Satan feverishly does everything he can to make you yield to impatience and disobedience.  He tries to make you feel that you deserve to have it all now.  He tries to make you look at the world—at all the people who have gotten rich over night; and he tries to make you envy them.  He wants you to be frustrated and to suffer mental anguish.  And he does all this because he is an enemy of God, and your enemy.  Thus He wants to lead you down the path of sin and rebellion against God.  Ultimately he wants to destroy you.