Do Not Grow Weary: William Wilberforce and Galatians 6:9

Some prayers take a lifetime to answer. Today's lesson is about staying faithful when the harvest seems far away.

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." - Galatians 6:9 (KJV)

According to Wikipedia, William Wilberforce was a British politician from Hull who became a Member of Parliament in 1780. In 1785 he went through a conversion experience and became an evangelical Anglican, and that faith left him with a lifelong concern for reform. He became a leading voice in the movement to end the Atlantic slave trade.

The part that speaks to us is how long it took. Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act in 1807, after many years of campaigning. Slavery itself was only ended across the British Empire with the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, and Wilberforce died that same year. He pushed for decades, through defeats and delays, and he did not give up.

Lessons for us:
- Doing good is often slow. Do not measure a seed by the first week.
- Faith turns into action. His conversion changed how he used his office.
- "Due season" belongs to God. Our part is to not faint.

Prayer point: Lord, keep us from growing weary in the good things You have asked us to do, and let us see Your due season.

Over to you: What good work or prayer have you been tempted to give up on? Do you have a testimony of something that only came to fruition after years of waiting?

Sources: Wikipedia, William Wilberforce (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce); KJV Bible.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (portrait of William Wilberforce, public domain)