The Waiting Is The Hardest Part, Part III

“God also said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you are no longerto call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and willsurely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be themother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.’” (Genesis17:15–16 NIV).

Just like you or me, Sarah and Abraham may have thought, “God doesn’t understand our circumstances; his commandments are goodguidelines, but they simply don’t work well in the nitty-gritty of life.”

And so Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.

Yetthe promise had been that Sarah would be the one to deliver a son forAbraham; so the wait continued, long after reaching the point ofdesperate frustration--the place where you say, “God, I can’t go on anylonger!”

You’ve been there--like the widow knocking on thejudge’s door, you pray day and night but the shutters stay closed andthe door remains shut (Luke 18). Sarah and Abraham knocked on that doorfor another fourteen years! (Genesis 16:16; Genesis 21:5).

WhileAbraham and Sarah waited, God made a covenant with Abram, changing hisname to Abraham, which means “father of many.” And he changed Sarai’sname to Sarah, saying she would be the mother of nations and among heroff-spring would be kings (Genesis 17 NIV).

Then God sentthree mysterious visitors to tell Abraham that Sarah would provide hima son within the year. Sarah laughed, not believing God was about togive birth to his promise (Genesis 18).

Yet, they were totallyand wholly dependent upon God to fulfill his promise. Not dependentbecause they’d obediently submitted everything to God, but totallydependent because they’d exhausted every other possibility.

And that’s often why God delays. He’s waiting on us to be ready for him.

Finally, God opened Sarah’s womb so she could bear Abraham a son in his old age, at the time appointed by God (Genesis 21:2).

Jon Walker