I am so excited about 2011! There are so many things that I hope will happen. I was thinking about the possibilities of 2011 the other day and about how our timing is often so different from God’s. I wrote an article about it for ‘Vision’ but thought I would share some of my thoughts on this blog.
Sometimes we know that God has a plan for us but nothing seems to be happening in our lives. It may be that we know He has a ministry that He wants us to be involved in but there seems to be no resources to start it. It may even be that we have a huge decision to make but He doesn’t seem to be giving us the answer we so desperately need. It’s like we are waiting in limbo, feeling anxious and worried.
My aunt and uncle used to have a sign in their home that said ‘Lord, grant me patience, but hurry!’ I think we can all relate to this message. We know that we need to be patient, but it is really difficult. Eventually some of us are so overcome with impatience that we try to take matters into our own hands, often with disastrous results.
Some people who struggled with waiting on God were Abraham and his wife Sarah (originally referred to as Abram and Sarai.) The book of Genesis explains how God promised Abraham that his descendents would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens. This would have been an amazing promise...if it weren’t for the fact that Abraham’s wife was getting on in years and hadn’t borne him any children.
After some time, Sarah grew impatient. She was getting older and she still wasn’t falling pregnant. She tried to hurry God up a little bit by taking matters into her own hands. She organised for Abraham to have a son by her maidservant, Hagar. Things seemed to work out according to plan and a son, Ishmael was born. But, if you read through Genesis (particularly chapters 6 and 21,) you’ll learn about how the whole situation resulted in much bitterness between Sarah and Hagar. Eventually Hagar and her son were sent away. Taking things into her own hands backfired for Sarah and resulted in pain, anger and rejection (not only for her but those around her too.)
That’s often what happens when we take things into our own hands. When we rush God, we often end up hurting ourselves and others. We might even end up further postponing God’s plans for us. God was gracious and soon Sarah fell pregnant and had Isaac. God started to fulfil his promise to Abraham through that son. It took a long time for God to fulfil His promise, but He did. If Sarah had just been patient, she could have avoided the problems she experienced and the emotional turmoil that went with them.
So often we are tempted to ‘pull a Sarah’ – I know that I am. It’s really hard not to take the first step to fulfilling God’s promises in our own strength. We want to tell God when and how but He just wants us to trust Him. I have learnt that when waiting on God the best strategy is...to do nothing. I know it’s not easy but doing nothing allows God to do something extremely amazing. It causes us to truly trust in and rely on Him. This is the situation that He wants us to be in – completely reliant on Him. Often the waiting is to get us to this point so that He can equip us for His plans for us.
So, next time we’re tempted to ‘pull a Sarah’ I reckon we follow the best strategy and just do nothing. God is powerful and almighty enough to orchestrate things and create the opportunities that He has promised us. It may take time but let’s use the time in limbo to serve God where we are. And while we’re doing that, let’s keep praying and asking for His guidance. His timing is always perfect, even if we aren’t always aware of it.
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