Getting out in front of God is not a good idea!
Approximately 4,100 years ago, God made a promise to Abram that he would have an heir. In addition to the one heir, God promised him many heirs, in fact as many as there are stars in the sky! God delivered on both promises and Abram (Abraham) is known as the father of all believers. However, 10 years after God’s original promise of the one heir, Abram’s wife Sarai thought God needed a little help since Abram was in his mid-80s and she was well beyond the age of child bearing years. We read in Genesis 16 that Sarai offered her young maid-servant Hagar to Abram to give him a son. Men of this day and age might be thinking “my, how times have changed!” đ
Hagar gave Abram a son Ishmael. But the relationship between the two women turned out badly making Abram’s life a living nightmare. This is a good reminder to men that even 4,000 years ago, it was NOT a good idea to bring another woman into a marriage, even if it was the wife’s idea.
We learn later in Genesis 17, Sarai’s impatience got a little ahead of God’s plan. About 14 years after the birth of Ishmael, God fulfills His promise by blessing 90 year old Sarai (now Sarah) and 99 year old Abram (now Abraham) with their son Isaac.
Waiting on God requires Patience
Our world is so much faster than it was 40 years ago, much less than 4,000 years ago. Sarai was pretty patient given she waited 10 years before deciding to “help” God give a son to Abram. Today we live in an instant world. Fast food, Google, convenience stores, 24-hour news cycles, mobile phones, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and now AI is exploding onto the scene. Waiting 10 years would be a lifetime in today’s world.
My momâs voice still rings in my head with the old adage, âpatience is a virtue.â Patience has always been a tough one for me, much harder than learning how to be grateful or to forgive. I was that type-A personality who was more interested in forcing a square peg into a round hole than waiting for the right fit. I didnât really understand the meaning of patience. I thought patience was for people who procrastinated. They didnât have the initiative to âget âer done,â as Larry the Cable Guy would say.
It took me most of my life to learn patience is not just a virtue; it is also a blessing. Patience is the ability to wait, to persevere, and to trust in Godâs timing over oneâs own impulsive desires.
A Story about Waiting
Aaron Rodgers is a successful, well-respected quarterback in the NFL, but his success was not immediate. Although he was a decent high school quarterback, he didnât have Division 1 colleges knocking on his door. He played one year for a 2-year college, where his football skills earned him a scholarship to play for the University of California, Berkeley. It wasnât until the fifth game that he earned the role of starting quarterback, and then he had a successful 2003 season. In his junior year in 2004, Rodgers delivered an outstanding performance, passing for more than 2,300 yards with a 67 percent completion rate. The Green Bay Packers took note and drafted Rodgers late in the first round of the 2005 draft. Once again, Rodgers patiently waited for the role of starting quarterback when other college quarterbacks with less impressive stats had been drafted as NFL starters. Although he sat on the bench every game day for three years, he spent weekdays honing his skills, running the practice squad with focused purpose until the aging Brett Favre finally retired. I donât know if Aaron Rodgers honors God is his heart. But I do know he waited patiently with poise and perseverance, which allowed him to find and develop his God-given talent, earning him many distinguished awards including athlete of the year, six Pro Bowls, Super Bowl champion, MVP, and at one time the highest-paid football player in the history of the game.
A Story about Perseverance
If 10 years seemed long to Sarai, here’s a story of a man who waited a lifetime to know success. His father died when he was 6 years old. He dropped out of grade school to work to help his mom support his two younger siblings. Years later, his twenty-year-old son died from complications of a surgery, which led to a divorce. For a period of time he lived out of his car and relied on friends for meals. It wasn’t until he was collecting social security checks before he became a household name. We know Harland David Sanders, as Colonel Sanders who founded Kentucky Fried Chicken. He is the epitome of perseverance. But his biggest success did not come until his late 70s when Colonel Sanders accepted Jesus as his Savior.
Trust
Here’s where I think Sarai and the rest of us fail. Believers have faith in God or they would not be believers, right? We love God and we are thankful for His many blessings. But do we really trust God? If we truly trusted God, would we be so eager to run out in front of Him to make things happen? How many times have you decided to go “fix” a situation without praying about it first? Did you not think to trust God with it or at least ask Him for His guidance? Did you ever seek someone else’s opinion on a matter before bringing it to God? I regret to admit I have on many occasions. God should have been my first step in the process, not my last resort when the situation completely unraveled.
Sarai used her “human” reasoning to justify “helping” the creator of the world because her husband was old and she was beyond child bearing years. If you think about it, Sarai not only didn’t trust God, she put limitations on the Supreme Being who created the heavens and the earth, who formed Adam out of the dirt and breathed life into his body. How about Abram? He enjoyed actual conversations with God and yet he trusted his wife’s solution to the problem over God’s promise. God eventually fulfilled His promise to Abram and Sarai. But did He hold back the miracle birth of their son Isaac for another 13 years or so because of their mistrust?
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and he will make straight your paths”
Proverbs 3: 5-6
How many times do we use our “human” solutions because we got tired of waiting for God? How many times has God made us wait a little longer because of our impatience? How many teenagers act on impulse because they don’t trust their parents? How many parents withhold responsibility from their teenagers because they acted on impulse? Four thousand years ago and before, all the way back to Adam and Eve, mankind has been trying to do it “my way” because of our pride and lack of trust in God.
God’s Timing
Have you ever noticed fruit trees never bear fruit before their appointed time. Some fruit trees never bear fruit. Nothing happens without Godâs permission. God is never early or late. The question is, are you willing to work diligently, wait patiently and trust in Godâs timing?
â… If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the Light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the Light is not in him.â
John 11: 9-10
Why do we insist on walking in the night? Why are we like teenagers who are disobedient to the Father who loves us and created us? At what point will we learn to wait on God’s timing in lieu of stumbling in the dark? Let’s turn towards Him, be filled with His light and learn to wait on His timing and allow His light to keep us from stumbling.
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