Prayer + Patience = Perseverance
We have all been there. You are stuck in a hard chapter of life where nothing seems to go right, or you are staring at your business dashboard completely blind as to what the next right move should be. You are stuck in the waiting room, pleading with God for direction, but the heavens feel like brass.
I have walked through those seasons more times than I can count.
One was a grueling, seven-year journey trying to conceive our son, Carter. I vividly remember the endless mornings and nights of deep prayer, mixed with profound sorrow and disappointment. We went through IVF twice. It was emotionally, physically, and spiritually exhausting.
More recently, we experienced a massive workplace transition when we moved our business coaching practice away from Keller Williams to launch out completely on our own. We struggled, hustled, and prayed for an entire year before the wheels finally started to turn and things shifted.
In both of those valley seasons, when I wanted to force an outcome or simply throw in the towel, the Holy Spirit gently reminded me of one unwavering truth: the absolute faithfulness of God.
Through the grit of those experiences, God gave me a simple spiritual equation for the faith-driven entrepreneur:
Prayer + Patience = Perseverance
If you want to build a life and business that endures the intense environmental pressures of leadership, you have to audit how you handle the waiting. To help evaluate where you stand, there are two vital questions we need to reflect on today: What does your prayer life look like, and how well are you waiting?
To answer that, let’s look at two masterclasses in grit from Scripture.
1. Hannah: The Longing of a Soul
The Context (1 Samuel 1): Hannah wanted nothing more than to have a child. Instead, she faced years of painful infertility alongside relentless, cruel mockery from her husband’s other wife, Peninnah.
The Prayer: Hannah didn't offer up a casual, polite prayer. She wept bitterly and poured out her soul so intensely in the tabernacle that the priest, Eli, literally thought she was drunk.
The Patience: She endured year after year of deep heartbreak and heavy societal shame while waiting on God to answer her cry.
The Perseverance: Hannah refused to let bitterness turn her heart away from the Lord. She kept showing up to worship, keeping her faith intact and her hands open to God's timing.
2. Nehemiah: The Blueprint of Grit
The Context (The Book of Nehemiah): Nehemiah was devastated to learn that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and its gates destroyed by fire. He felt a profound calling to rebuild them, but he was stuck working as a cupbearer to a foreign king thousands of miles away.
The Prayer: Before building a single strategy or checking a KPI, Nehemiah fasted and prayed for days, confessing sins and begging God for favor. Prayer was his default state—even mid-conversation with the king later on, he shot up a quick arrow prayer to God.
The Patience: He didn't rush into the king's presence carelessly; he waited four months for the exact right moment just to ask for permission to leave.
The Perseverance: Once execution started, the real warfare began. He faced assassination plots, public mockery, and political corruption. But because his foundation was built on rigorous prayer and patient planning, he persevered. The result? The wall was rebuilt in an astonishing 52 days.
Take Action: Evaluating Your Waiting Room
Like Nehemiah and Hannah, your ultimate breakthrough depends on the foundation you build while you are waiting. Let's pull up our spiritual calendars this week and do an honest audit: Audit Your Prayer: Look at your current trials. Are you offering God casual, generic "wish lists," or are you earnestly pouring out your soul and seeking His specific strategy? Action: Schedule 15 minutes of uninterrupted, focused prayer today solely to lay your business plans before the Lord.
Evaluate Your Patience: When faced with a delay, do you default to anxiety, or do you wait with expectation? Remember, patience isn't just passive waiting; it’s keeping a good attitude while you wait.
Commit to the Equation: Write down Prayer + Patience = Perseverance on a sticky note and place it on your desk. Every time you feel the urge to force an outcome out of alignment with God's timing, use it as a reminder to reset your focus.
As I always say, I am still very much under development myself, but I am learning and growing through these rhythms every single day. Let’s stop trying to bypass the process and trust the God who makes straight our paths.