The Study

Isaiah 25

What the Marshmallow Test Teaches About Prayer

Why Waiting Is So Hard

In 2014, researchers at the University of Virginia ran an experiment that sounds almost too simple: put people alone in an empty room for about fifteen minutes with nothing to do but think — no phone, no book — except for one button that delivers a mild electric shock. The results, published in the journal Science, were not what most people expect: a majority of the men and a quarter of the women pressed the button at least once rather than sit with their own thoughts. One man pressed it 190 times. Nobody in that room was weak. What they could not stand was the gap between wanting something and getting it, with nothing to fill the silence in between.

You have probably heard of the marshmallow test: leave a child alone with one marshmallow, and if they can wait without eating it, they get two. In 2013, researchers at the University of Rochester ran a variation. One group of children first spent time with an adult who kept every small promise he made; a separate group spent time with an adult who broke his promises. Both groups then took the marshmallow test. The children who had just experienced a reliable adult waited about twelve minutes, on average, before giving in. The children who had just experienced an unreliable adult waited about three.

That matters more than a willpower story would: waiting is not mainly a test of self-control, it is a test of trust. A person who expects promises to be kept will wait. A person who has learned that waiting rarely pays off will not — and that is not a character flaw, it is a prediction built on evidence.

What Isaiah Already Knew

Isaiah wrote to a nation under real pressure, surrounded by chaos it could not control. He does not open by demanding blind trust. He opens by remembering what God has already done:

"Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat." (Isaiah 25:4)

Before asking Judah to trust God for what is still coming, Isaiah has them look back at what God has already given. That is worth copying. Before you ask for the next thing, name one specific thing he has already given you.

Then Isaiah turns to what is still ahead — death undone, every tear wiped away (see Isaiah 25:8) — and names what the people in between are actually doing:

"Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." (Isaiah 25:9)

Read that verse twice. The object of all that waiting is not an outcome, it is "him," twice in one verse. Judah was not promised that every circumstance would resolve on schedule. They were promised a Person worth waiting on.

When the Answer Is No

The hardest version of waiting is not when God is slow, it is when the answer is genuinely no. In Gethsemane, the Savior asked plainly for something he wanted:

"Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." (Luke 22:42)

He did not get what he asked for. He is the one person who could say the Father's will was trustworthy even when it cost him everything. If the perfectly obedient Son could ask honestly and still receive a no, a no is not proof God does not hear or care. It can mean there is more to the story than the part you can see yet.

This Week

Write down, every night this week, one thing God has already done for you — not something you are still waiting on. Seven nights, seven lines. The point is not to prove he will give you what you want next. It is to build a record solid enough that next time you are stuck in the gap, you already know who you are waiting on.

  • What has taught you that waiting usually does not pay off?
  • What has God already given you that you have not thought to thank him for?
  • If this week's honest answer is "not yet," can you still trust the one who answered?

From the Church’s manuals

This lesson is one teacher’s preparation. The Church’s manual is the place to start, and it has more than any one class can cover.

Sign the register

New lesson notes in your inbox when they are posted, and new songs when they come. Always free.