Maybe God is growing a tree

My friend left Islam decades ago and has passionately prayed for her family ever since. Through the years, she has experienced verbal attacks on her faith, rejection (including divorce), strong pressure to return to practicing Islam, spiritual attacks and more. Perhaps one of the most severe hardships she has endured is seeing her loved ones held captive to false worship and blinded from seeing the person of Jesus—the very One who has brought her so much joy and freedom.

But...
"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) 

Recently, my friend visited her very elderly mother for an extended period. Her mother still has not confessed that she has chosen to follow Jesus, which concerns my friend because of her advanced age. But this visit, she was different.  Her mother would go immediately into intercession whenever she lay down in bed, not with the recited prayers that Muslims pray, but deeply compassionate intercession for many people whose pain and problems she was receiving as a burden to carry to the Throne Room. My friend, a gifted intercessor, commented, "She put me to shame! I should have that much compassion when I pray." Whenever they would argue, she'd ask for forgiveness immediately with tears. Again, my friend observed, "She put me to shame! I should have apologized first." And now that my friend has returned home, she's been receiving phone calls from her mother right at the time when she's thinking of her, revealing a new connection in the Spirit. And there have been no accusations from the family, as before, that my friend has been brainwashing her mother.

Another friend related a story about a time when she was in her kitchen urgently crying to God for an answer to prayer that she needed RIGHT NOW. Twice, He interrupted her and drew her attention to a tree in her garden. She looked, but couldn't relate and returned to her prayer. The third time He pointed out the tree, she noticed it was beautiful and heard Him say, "I love to grow trees. It takes time to grow a tree."

Do you have a Muslim friend you've been praying for a long time? Maybe God is growing a tree. 

Dear Lord,
Help me be faithful in prayer and patient with the ways in which You choose to work.
Help me recognize when the need is urgent and respond by pressing in.
Help me see Your Presence in those who are becoming "...a planting of the Lord for the display of [Your] splendour" (Isaiah 61:3).