I think there are two types of people waiting on the Lord. One that’s waiting for His promises to be fulfilled, and one that waiting for God to speak to them. Either way, it’s important that whichever group of people we belong to we hang in there and wait for Him.
Abraham was one of those people who waited for God to fulfill a promise, I suppose he would have been content to keep waiting, but Sarah came along with a plan to make the Lord’s promise happen for them. Instead of telling Sarah, “Let me check with the Lord to see if that is what we’re supposed to do,” he went along with Sarah. God had promised Abraham a son and told him that he was going to have children as much as the stars in the sky and as much as the sand in the sea. The Bible tells us Abraham believed God, but when put to the test, he failed. Or maybe he thought this might be God’s answer for them. But the fact that he went along with Sarah’s plan to make her maid his second wife, leaves me to think he wanted it too. Maybe he figured why argue? He loved Sarah and wanted to make her happy. I mean what was so wrong with having Sarah’s maid as his wife, since that was the practice at that time and Sarah thought it was the only way? Especially if you belong to a culture where having a child is the most important thing in the world. In Abraham and Sarah’s time, it was everything.
Imagine the wait that Abraham and Sarah went through to see God fulfilling His promise. Abraham was 86 years old when Ishmael, Sarah’s maid’s son was born. God told him he would have a son and now a son is here. The Bible tells us that God didn’t tell Abraham that it was going to be through Sarah until after Ishmael was born. After Ishmael, they still waited for 14 more years for Isaac. It must have brought amazement and relief at the same time that God finally gave them what they waited for. He came through for them when Sarah was 90 years old. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.
Here’s the thing, it doesn’t matter if it seems like God’s promise is never going go happen. We need to stay faithful and hang in there because He will come through.
Numbers 23:19 says,
“God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He that He should repent. Has He said, and He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
God will never lie. It is not in Him to lie to us. He hates lying. God will not forget what He tells us He’s going to do for us. If He said it, He is going to bring it to pass, just hang in there and don’t come up with another plan. If you’re itching to get going, it’s better to make your plans known to Him so that you can see if it’s a good idea or not. Chances are that by talking to God He will encourage you to wait some more. Don’t rush into things that you think will get you God’s promise fulfilled. When I feel like waiting another minute is going to kill me, I talk to God about it, and feel like I can wait longer.
We will never go wrong to wait on God, no matter how long it takes. Even if it feels like forever since we’ve heard from Him, it pays again and again to seek the Lord for answers and be ready to hear His voice.
“Without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him“ – Hebrews 11:6
From Pity to Praise 