Have you ever had moments where you thought to yourself, "No matter what I do things aren't going my way?" or "I know God told me this was for me, why didn't it work out?"
I have definitely had moments when I know that I felt in my Spirit God tell me a promise. I am sure we have all had times when we thought with 100% assurance God had given us a promise of something to come. If you are anything like me, no matter what we did to claim that promise, it just fell a part. I have been left sitting distraught wondering what did I do wrong? or did I not hear God accurately? If you have had this happen then you are not alone!
We can see this very same scenario happen in scripture. In Genesis 15:5-6 the Lord promised Abraham as many descendants as the stars in the night sky. Abraham heard that straight from The Angel of the Lord's mouth and Abraham received it. In verse 6 Abraham was even counted as righteous because he believed the promise from God. In my life I have certainly felt God promise answers to prayers with the same certainty that Abraham had having heard the promise straight from the mouth of God. So what happened you might ask? I would suppose what happened wastThe same thing that Abraham was guilty of. In the very next chapter (Genesis 16) we see Abraham trying to make sense of the promise and allowed himself to get talked into getting involved. Sarai rationalized to Abraham a way that he could help God out with this promise of descendants. Before you know it Abraham got one of the servants, Hagar, pregnant. Abraham was about to have a biological child and he made God to be right, technically. There in lies the problem. The problem is when we begin to think that God needs our help or we get too impatient to wait on God to fulfill the promise. We, as people, are full of "great" ideas and when these ideas run in opposition with God we are just going to fall on our faces. This impatient can also affect, not only ourselves, but the people around us as well.
In Genesis 21:8 we see that Abraham's mistake was going to affect the people around him. Ishmael was the son born from Hagar and he became a constant reminder of his impatience to his wife. Eventually Abraham chose to send Ishmael away with Hagar his mother and a promise from God to protect him. Abraham's impatience brought chaos into his home, marriage and left a child fatherless. I am sure all of this could have been avoided if Abraham would have just kept reminding himself of God's promise in chapter 15. The lesson here is that it always pays to be patient since God is not slack regarding His promises (2 Peter 3:9). When you begin to feel yourself getting impatient, repeat to yourself Psalm 27: 13-14 "I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!"
When You can wait on the Lord, you will have spared yourself and others a lot of pain and complications. When you wait on the Lord, you will get exactly what He plans for you: good not evil, a future and a hope( Jeremiah 29:11)! Wait, I say, wait on the Lord my brothers and sisters in Christ! God Bless.
-Pastor Gerson
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