Two Brothers

This is really frustrating. I'm waiting for God to bring to pass some things He's promised me; some things He's put on my heart to do. I mean, it's what He wants for my life! So why hasn't it come to pass yet? Waiting is hard, oh so hard, especially if you're waiting for a promise to come to pass.

I was thinking about David, the psalmist-king who flung rocks at giants and defeated thousands. God said he would become king, even had him anointed in front of his whole family by the prophet of God. But that promise was just the start of David's troubles. He would spend the next long years of his life in caves, fighting to stay alive, running for his life. This is how a king to be is treated?

It's hard to wait; especially for a promise to come to pass. I'm a mission minded man. Give me the instructions and I'm on it. I'll hold nothing back. No time to waste. No reason to wait. But this isn't how God works. No, it seems that God prepares us through the anticipation of the promise. We are made in the waiting. 

How many of us have counted down the days to Christmas, or put the notice out there that there are so many shopping days until our birthday? It's the promise of a gift; the fulfillment of our desire. It's hard to wait while the promise of a present sits before us in a pretty colored box with a big bow on it. But God requires it - that is, waiting for His perfect timing to bring the promise of His plan for our lives into action.

"But we can't just sit back and wait for things to happen!" (Says the mission minded man with a strong sense of logic.) "Nothing would get done!" Be careful. Consider Abraham and Sarah.

God had made a promise to Abraham (and to Sarah) that his children would rival the number of stars in the sky and grains of sand on the seashore. From him and Sarah would come kings. Yet they had no children and were both past the time when couples have children. Time was speeding by. When was God's promise going to come to pass? Well, Abraham decided, upon his wife's advice, to make the child thing happen. He got his wife's maidservant pregnant and lo and behold a child! But this was not God's promise. This was Abraham's effort; his doing.

It's dangerous to abandon God's timing and force things in our own strength and effort; to take matters into our own hands. This is not an excuse for inactivity, but rather an encouragement to commit our ways to God and acknowledge Him at every step. "Jump now, Lord?" "Move here? When?" "Here's my plan Lord, bless it or correct it, but I'm acknowledging you in this."

This is the attitude of surrender and humility that will bring you far into the promises of God for your life. We fret not unto doing, and we fear not into inactivity. Our path is prepared by Him for us to walk on and our steps guided by His Holy Spirit.

Two brothers. Ishmael, the child of Abraham's effort and Sarah's scheming. The son of a slave. Isaac, the miracle of an elderly couple. The son of the promise. Which one will your next step produce?