“For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.” (Genesis 21:2)
One of the hardest things in the world for me to handle is waiting. Ever since I was young I was always waiting for something, for someone. I couldn’t wait until I was sixteen so I could drive. I couldn’t wait until I was eighteen so I could graduate high school. I couldn’t wait until I was married so I could have a wife and family. I couldn’t wait until I finally settled upon a career. Then I couldn’t wait until my working years were over so I could retire. Now that I’m retired, I can’t wait until…
Dad always warned me about wishing my life away. He warned me that it would all happen so fast that I would look back and wonder what happened. But...here it is. My entire life I have spent waiting on the next big thing, my next accomplishment, the next milestone. I was so busy living into the future I often forgot to live in the moment. As the old Chinese (I believe it was) saying goes: “Too soon old, too late smart.”
Perhaps that’s the beauty of journaling. I have heard people speak of writing down the revelations they got from God, then going back when those revelations came to pass and putting down the dates they happened. This gave them a reference to double-check when the days were dark and they seemed to have lost their way. They could go back and see what God had promised them, what words of encouragement they had received. That kept them on track and facing the right direction.
I have finally, after all these years, come to appreciate the timing of God. Don’t get me wrong, I STILL want to run ahead of Him and do things too soon, but I have seen the wisdom in waiting on His timing and His plan. Unfortunately, this late-in-life understanding has cost me multiplied thousands of dollars – just in the last years. But now I know. And now I wait.
It’s funny, isn’t it, how we can look at the life of Moses, Abraham, Jacob, Job, and others and completely understand why THEY had to wait? After all, THEY disobeyed God. In fact, some – like Moses and David – never got to fulfill the desires of their hearts or see the fulfillment of God’s promises because of their disobedience. But what about me? Ahhh, there’s the problem isn’t it? I can see their transgressions clearly, but my own are obscured by my involvement and personal attachment to them. I can make excuses for everything I have done wrong. After all, I did the best I could with the understanding and resources I had available at the time, right? But did I?
I have heard it said that often we aren’t waiting on our blessings, but they are waiting on us! God has had them for us since before we were born. He has had the plan all laid out since forever, but He has to wait on us to get in place and ready to receive them before He can give them to us. Ouch! And I thought I WAS ready. Just like when I was fourteen and thought I could drive a car. Or seventeen and thought I was a real man. Or a private in the Army yet thought I could be a sergeant. Or a mere child in my thoughts but just knew I could be a leader in the household of God. Apparently I still, at the age of sixty-three, have some growing up to do.
The challenge for you and me today is to slow down, spend some time alone with God, and trust Him to know when it is best for us. Best to receive our inheritance, best to receive great blessings, best to move forward. I must learn, as did the Israelite children in their desert wanderings, to follow the cloud of God’s Spirit. They had a physical cloud to observe and follow. I have the Holy Spirit of the cloud in my heart that I must learn to observe and follow.
God please continue to teach me, continue to guide me, continue to rescue me from my own wanderings, and continue to mature me into the person you want me to become. And when the time comes for my blessing, may I be found like Caleb in the book of Joshua who said, “Give me this mountain for I am as strong now as when God promised it to me.” I pray this for you, too, my friend. May you continue in the Lord, growing ever-stronger in your faith and ever-ready to receive what God has promised you.
Be blessed.
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