She’s brooding. This duck has found a safe corner in our courtyard. Nestled in the dark bark, using the down  from her abdomen, she has created a nest and then laid her eggs.  And now, she broods!  For the next 28 days she broods― leaving the nest for no more than two or three hours a day to get food and water, which means she sits on her eggs for 20 to 23 hours a day!

Each day when we check her progress, we are amazed how immoveable she is. Patiently providing the warmth the eggs need during this almost month long incubation.  She broods, but her brooding is different than the way we brood.  

Our brooding is defined in Webster’s as “pondering for a long time with worry or anxiety.” We brood about the challenges we face in life: unrealized dreams, unfulfilled promises, broken relationships, financial woes,  health issues. We ponder on them with worry and anxiety, instead of brooding on them with prayer.

Jesus even encourages us to:   

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (Matt. 7:7-8)

Ask, seek, knock!  Instead of “brooding about” when God will answer a prayer, we need to “brood on” that request, persistently ”warming”  that petition with faith-filled, persistent prayer!

Even when days turn into months, even years, don’t forsake that place of prayer. Don’t give up!  “Brood on” that need, keep it “warm” with continual prayer and trust in God until He “hatches” the answer in His perfect timing.