Waiting On The LordSample

Inability To Wait Will Give Birth To Long-term Chaos And Confusion 

As we learned yesterday, waiting is always connected to a promise. Today we will look at what happens when we are not willing to wait on the Lord. I love the life of Abraham because he seemed like the most down to earth guy that ever lived even though he was chosen and favored by God. When I am down, I like to read about Abraham because the story of his life infuses me with hope to carry on, but I also get to see the humanity, frailty, and simplicity of a man just like me. Abraham was called a man of great faith, but he had flaws and lying was one. He was fearful hence the reason for his lying, he had doubts about God's promises, and he gave in to temptation, yet, God blessed him long before he made his mistakes. 

Today, because of Jesus we are also chosen and blessed even with all our flaws, but if we go ahead of God's promise and cut our waiting period short, the consequences of that action will still manifest and are ours to deal with. God's promises contain the best for us and when we bypass the process of waiting we give up the best for less.

Abraham received a promise he would have a son of his own but time was going by, and nothing seemed to happen, and Abraham went to the Lord full of doubts and fears because he had no children. He was getting old, and his inheritance would have to be left for his servant. God reassured Abraham he would have a son of his own – "Then the word of the Lord came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir." (Genesis 15:4 NIV). Abraham pressed on to believe, but his wife Sarah was running out of patience because she also was old and passed the stage of childbearing. It seemed like their lives were wasting away. They had followed God's instructions and left their homeland in search of the promise of God, yet the one thing they desired most was taking the longest. Are you in a place like this? Are all the natural circumstances shouting that God has forgotten you, and get up and help yourself achieve the promise faster? 

Sarah didn't want to wait because she looked at herself and her age and thought, "Surely this child is not going to come from my body so let me see if I can give Abraham a little help in moving the process along, after all, God only told Abraham the son would come from his own body, so maybe this doesn't need me." And like any wife who has lost their natural and spiritual mind, she offers Abraham her maid to sleep with – "so she said to Abram, "The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her." (Genesis 16:2 NIV). What? As you read this, it sounds absurd, but when we are not willing to wait, we will find ourselves resorting to desperate means and measures to fulfill a promise only God can fulfill. Due to their inability to wait on the promise, chaos broke out in the home after the maid got pregnant, a son was born out of human intervention, and till today the struggle ensues between the people that came from the maid and the people that came from the promise. Is it worth the risk to move ahead of God? Today I pray that if the thought of giving up or trying your own way is bombarding you, that you will take time and ask God for help to wait on him. 

"The cure for impatience with the fulfillment of God's timetable is to believe His promises, obey His will, and leave the results to Him. So often when God's timetable stretches into years, we become discouraged and...want to give up or try to work something out on [our] own." - Jerry Bridges