Waiting for God’s Appointed Time

“Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” Genesis 18:14 NKJV

We’ve all had to wait for something before. We’ve either waited in a queue for our turn, waited at a restaurant, waited for results from a laboratory, waited for an examination result, waited to get married, waited to have a baby, etc. Waiting is never easy. What attitude should we have while we wait for the promises or prophecies of God to be fulfilled in our lives?

Abraham, who was formerly called Abram, had no child. In Genesis 12:1 God spoke to him and commanded him to leave his family and people and go to a place that God would show him. As part of the commissioning, Abram was given this prophecy by God “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you”. After receiving this instruction, Abram set out from Haran at the age of 75 years.

Much later on after Abram had fought and won some battles, the Lord appeared to him again in Genesis 15 and confirmed the promise saying that Abram’s offspring would be as much as the stars in the skies and the sand on the seashore. Yet Abram had no child at this point.

Your posture while you wait

Do not be anxious

Anxiety is fueled by our fears, we become anxious when we are afraid. One sure way to beat fear and anxiety is to keep our minds fixed on the Word of God (Isaiah 26:3). This is not always easy to do.

God told Abram that a child from his own body was going to be his heir (Genesis 15:4). In the following chapter, Sarai persuades Abram to sleep with Hagar and Ishmael is born. You may ask, how was Abram to know that the promised child was to be from the union between Abram and Sarai? In Matthew 19:6 Jesus said that when a man and woman marry, they are no longer two but one flesh. So God’s promise to Abram that his heir was going to come from his own body meant that it was going to come from the union between himself and Sarai. As such Abram should not have listened to this suggestion from Sarai his wife.

Ignore the mockery
Hannah ignored the mockery of Peninnah and instead turned to the Lord in prayer (1 Samuel 1). At times, we need to be provoked in order to want desperately what God wants for us.

Pray
Hannah was not the only one who was fervent in prayer. The prophetess Anna also prayed earnestly as she waited for the birth of the Messiah, Jesus (Luke 2:36 – 38).   Philippians 4:6 urges us not to be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we should present our requests to God so that His peace which passes all understanding, would keep our minds and hearts in Christ Jesus.

To be continued next week.