on God
Abraham and Sarah received awesome promises from God, but what they did not receive was a timeline for when those promises would be fulfilled. They learned quickly that trusting this God and His promises meant a lot of waiting, hoping, and praying.
There were a few years when my life felt like one big waiting room. My heart’s desire was to become a mom, but my body just wasn’t cooperating. After a couple of years in the waiting room of my regular ob-gyn, I moved on to the bigger and more expensive waiting room of a specialist, and a lab, and an operating room, and lots of other places where it seemed like all I could do was . . . wait.
After what seemed like an eternity of trying, the joy of finding out we were expecting our first baby was quickly eclipsed by the devastating news that I had miscarried. That led to more tests, more doctors’ visits, and more waiting as we anticipated answers and results.
Abraham and Sarah’s lives were full of waiting for their longing for a child to be fulfilled. From their perspective it must have seemed that their prayers were getting harder and harder to answer because of their advancing age, but to a God who loves a challenge, the timing was just right. The more difficult something is to make happen, the more God enjoys rolling up His sleeves and impressing the world by doing what only He can accomplish. Waiting for the blessing can often be part of the blessing itself, since we have to rely on God in new and unexpected ways. Abraham and Sarah’s longings were finally satisfied by the arrival of their little boy, Isaac, the fulfillment of both their dreams and God’s promises.
I never would have chosen the path that my husband and I went down over those years of waiting. But I recognize now that the waiting strengthened my marriage and my relationship with God more than I could have imagined at the time. Those years gave me a deep appreciation for Abraham and Sarah. When I read their story of waiting, I see their years of discouragement and anguish but also their growing trust and hope in God. Abraham and Sarah had different hearts, a different marriage, and a different outlook on God’s promises after twenty-five long years of waiting.
Believing and trusting God doesn’t mean that our prayers will be instantaneously answered, as if God were some cosmic vending machine ready to dispense our wishes and wants. Instead, it means that our waiting and longing can become a tool that transforms us rather than an obstacle to happiness and fulfillment. Choosing to believe God’s promises and trust God’s goodness means that we turn our waiting over to Him. When we do, moments when we impatiently thought nothing was happening at all can become some of the most productive, transformational times of our lives.
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