Taking Charge!

"The Lord has kept me from having children. Go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her." Genesis 16:2


Taking Charge!
By Rev. William Dohle

Of all the fruit of the spirit(love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control) I think I have the most trouble with...patience!

It's like this. Patience requires you to wait. If you pray for more patience, basically you're praying to wait a little longer. And none of us likes to wait... At least I don't.

Waiting requires you to have faith in the long-term. It's one thing to believe someone for a short-time. But waiting requires you to believe them for the long haul. To hope and trust that what they say will come true, despite the delay.

Sometimes, when we get tired of waiting, we try to take matters into our own hands. We figure "God only helps those who help themselves..." and we forget that the good things in life are worth waiting for. When that happens, only trouble may ensue.

That's what happened to Sarai, Abram's wife. She had been told by her husband that they would have children. God had even made a pact with Abram in the previous chapter, passing a smoking firepot between the pieces of meat, signing, in the ancient way, the covanent and guaranteeing the promise of descendants. "Look up to the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them," God had said. "So shall your offspring be."

Only God hadn't immediately fulfilled his promise. And Sarai and Abram were getting impatient. So Sarai gives her maidservant to Abram...and out comes Ishmael. The first-born of Abram and the son of Hagar, his servant.

But do things get better? Of course not. This wasn't how God intended the promise to be fulfilled. And Sarai gets jealous. And, though God isn't about to abandon this young woman and her son in the desert, as Sarai wishes he would, God has other plans in mind to fulfill his promise to Sarai and Abram.

We too may get impatient waiting on the promises of God. We hear God speaking through Scripture words like: "I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future..." We know that God works things together for good. But we feel lost. Our lives aren't turning out how we think they should.

Maybe we should take the promises of God into our own hands, we think. Maybe we should do something about it. Sure praying is good...but doesn't the Lord help those who help themselves? Doesn't it all depend upon me?

Well it doesn't all depend upon. And, though God works everything together in the end for good, including our attempts to quicken his promises, there is something to be said of waiting too. God always fulfills his promises. God always answers prayer...only not always when and how we think he should. Sarai never imagined she would be the carrier of God's blessing in Issac...just as we never imagine how God will fulfill his promises his us.

So...take heart. God will accomplish his good work in you. There is no doubt about it. Sit tight. Keep the faith. Trust that sometimes prayers might be answered in ways you could never imagine. The end that God has in mind is better than anything you could possibly dream up yourself.

Heavenly Father, your promises to Abram I hear for myself today. Help me trust in your Word. Give me patience to wait. And open my eyes that I might see the ways you are answering my prayer, here and now. Through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.