When we
think of God’s promises, one of the questions that we can find ourselves asking
is “when will God fulfill His promises?” You see, as Tom Petty sang, “the
waiting is the hardest part”. And in a section of the very first letter in our
Bibles, called the book of Genesis, we discover that this is not a new problem.
Instead, this is a human nature problem, as we see beginning in Genesis 16:1:
Now Sarai, Abram's
wife had borne him no children,
and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram,
"Now behold, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid;
perhaps I will obtain children through her." And Abram listened to the
voice of Sarai. After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram's
wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram
as his wife. He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she
had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight. And Sarai said to Abram,
"May the wrong done me be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, but
when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her sight. May the LORD
judge between you and me." But Abram said to Sarai, "Behold, your
maid is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight." So Sarai
treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence. Now the angel of the LORD
found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to
Shur. He said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from and where
are you going?" And she said, "I am fleeing from the presence of my
mistress Sarai." Then the angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to
your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority." Moreover, the angel
of the LORD said to her, "I will greatly multiply your descendants so that
they will be too many to count." The angel of the LORD said to her
further, "Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you
shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has given heed to your
affliction. "He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And
everyone's hand will be against
him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers." Then she called
the name of the LORD who spoke to her, "You are a God who sees"; for
she said, "Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?" Therefore
the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. So
Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore,
Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael
to him.
Here we see
Abram and Sarai attempt to help God out when it came to fulfilling his promise
of children to them. Sarai convinced Abram to give take her servant Hagar in
marriage, so that she could have a child through her. Instead of trusting in
God’s promises, Abram and Sarai attempted to help God out by coming up with
their own plan, because God’s plan did not fit their timing. However, after
Hagar became pregnant and gave birth to a son named Ishmael, Hagar and Sarai
became bitter rivals.
And it is in
this strange story that we discover that God’s promises require patience. Just
as it was for Abram and Sarai; just as it has been for humanity throughout
history; God’s promises require patience. Just like Abram and Sarai, we find
ourselves tempted to attempt to help God out by coming up with our own plan
when God’s plan does not fit our timing. And we can often ourselves in a place
in our lives where we experience the wake of consequences that comes as a
result of our lack of patience instead of patiently waiting on God’s promises.
So, how are
you doing when it comes to patience? Are you patiently following the Lord while
waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled? Or are you attempting to help God
out with your own plan because you are impatient?
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