“My times are in your hand.” (Psalm 31:15)
He was no spring chicken. Neither was his wife. Abraham and Sarai (Sarah) were 75 and 65 years old respectively. They had longed for a child, sadly parenthood had eluded them. But then, The Almighty spoke to Abraham and told him to leave his native country and go to a land that He would show him. Then he added a promise to his command, “And oh yeah, Abraham. I will make you into a great nation.” (Genesis 12:2). What do you suppose Abraham thought at that moment? Precisely what any of us would have thought. How can you become a great nation when you have no offspring? In fact, Abraham and Sarah would have another 25 year wait before they would hold their promised seed in their arms.
Waiting to receive answers to prayer is usually not our strong point. It wasn’t Abraham’s or Sarah’s either. Genesis chapter 16 tells us that Sarah gave Abraham her servant girl, Hagar, who became pregnant with Abraham’s son, Ishmael. So nearly 4,000 years ago Ishmael was born, and his descendants, the Muslims, came into existence. Abraham’s promised son, Isaac was born 14 years later, and the descendants of Isaac (the Jews) and Ishmael became bitter enemies.
When you pray and ask God for something, do you ever start coming up with Plan B – just in case God doesn’t answer your prayer? Let’s be honest, probably all of us have been guilty of doing just that. We do that for two reasons. First, we are very impatient people. It’s part of our fallen DNA. We simply don’t like to wait – for anything. Second reason we come up with a plan B is because we like to be in control of our lives. We like to know what’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen, and how its’ going to happen. These are the two reasons we are not good at waiting on God. We feel we are in more control when we’re our own little god.
When Sarah and Abraham took matters into their own hands and brought a child forth from the womb of a servant girl, they felt in control. They had no idea the turmoil they were birthing into the world. Turmoil and strife that would last for centuries. God even told Hagar what sort of a man her son Ishmael and his descendants would be. “This son of yours will be a wild man……He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him……He will live in open hostility against all his relatives.” (Genesis 16:12)
God wants to free us from the need to control, manipulate, dominate, and master everything that takes place in our life. But for this to happen, we must learn to exercise faith in God. Psalm 62:5 tells us, “let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.” Waiting for the Lord is where we will find hope. We will never find it in Plan B.
Darlene