Jackie Hill Perry, that's off her new album Crescendo, and it's very good. Worth checking out. Jackie, thank you for being with us again. On Friday, we talked about how hard it is to claim to God when life is easy. It was really good and challenging, and that's why I love following you on Twitter and Instagram.

Here's another tweet that I think is really perceptive, and I want you to elaborate on what you mean by it. Quote, "Sometimes the miracle isn't in our prayer being answered, but in your faith being grown as you wait." So good. Explain to us, what is God doing in us, in our waiting?

I think as a believer, one thing that I've consistently had difficulty with is the whole concept and idea of perseverance. And I think God is after that when we are praying for things that we don't seem to be getting. I got encouragement for that in particular when I was reading 1 Samuel 1, when it came to the story of Hannah and how she wanted a son or a child, and she wanted a child for a really, really long time.

And she kept praying as far as we know. But then when she went to the temple and she finally prayed to God and she let out her vexation to the Lord, it said that she walked away from the temple and her face was no longer sad. And that was always really intriguing to me, is that somehow when she prayed that prayer in particular and asked God to give her a son, the interesting thing is that in the prayer, she said that, "Lord, I will give the son back to you." And I think a lot of times we are praying for things that we have no intention on giving back to God in the first place.

And so I wonder if her heart had changed in such a way where everything that she was going to get from God and everything that she wanted to get from God, she only wanted it for His glory. And I think that part is what changed her heart so that she was able to walk away and no longer be sad by what seemed to be an unanswered prayer before the prayer was even answered.

And so for me, my heart has been, "Man, what is God trying to do in me through my waiting? Is He trying to help me see Him more? Is He trying to help me understand that I don't need what I think I need? Is He trying to teach me about contentment and the things that I do have?" I think God is always doing a variety of things in secret that we just really don't realize or don't see.

And so I think the faith, I think the miraculous thing is that faith is not natural to me. Sin is, rebellion is, unbelief is. So the miraculous thing is that God would somehow use my waiting as a means to grow my faith so that I could see Jesus and want Jesus and crave Jesus.

Because ultimately we know that perseverance produces character and character produces hope. And God just wants us to have hope in Him. He wants us to get to the end where we will receive the crown of life and you don't get there unless you persevere. And so God is doing a mighty thing in us when He just doesn't give us everything we want when we want it.

I suppose we're all waiting for something. I mean, I feel like when I'm being called to wait for an answer to prayer, I feel like I'm being singled out. Like, why me? Why do I have to wait? But the reality is, as you read the Bible and you're picking this up, waiting is part of the gig for all of God's people.

For sure. All throughout Scripture. I mean, Israel, they were crying out to God for deliverance for a long time, but He had promised to do so and He did it. Us, we're waiting for the return of Jesus. We are all in a sense waiting for something, but everything God said He will do, He will do.

And so in the meantime, as we wait, we keep trusting, we keep believing, we keep reading Scripture to remind ourselves what God has said. We keep surrounding ourselves with other believers who can stir us, who can remind us of the truth when we don't want to believe it. We keep praying, we keep believing.

And in that, that's where godliness comes out of, if you think about it, because you're trying hard to hold on. And in holding on, God is doing all that He has to do to keep us to Himself. That's good perspective, Jackie. Thank you. This is such a huge topic over, you know, what is God doing in us and our waiting?

We just recently covered this specifically, what do we do when our prayers are met with a firm no from God? We talked about that a couple of weeks back with Pastor John in episode 1226, which you can find at our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. There you can explore all 1,250 or so of our episodes, scan a list of our most popular ones, browse down to episode 1226, or read full transcripts, even send us a question of your own.

And of course, to get new episodes delivered to you three times per week, you can subscribe to the Ask Pastor John podcast in your favorite podcast app. Well, the battle for our morning devotions is a massive war for many of us. Our attention is under attack for vain things and for personal approval and desires that lure us online right as we wake up.

So how do we preserve our mornings? That's next time with Jackie Hill Perry. I'm Tony Reinke. We'll see you then on Wednesday. you