“And behold, the word of the LORD
came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your
heir.” (Genesis 15:4
ESV)
So do you
have what it takes to be a Christian? I doubt it! I know that on my own I don’t.
Its only by grace that I have made it this far in my Christian life. It takes a
certain amount perseverance and faith to trust that God is going to do what He
says He will do. There is one character in the Bible that comes to mind when I
think about perseverance, Abraham. The Lord came to Abraham when he was
advanced in years and promised him a son, an heir. This is a great thing for a
family especially back in those days. So if the Lord gave you a promise you
would probably expect the result to happen pretty soon after don’t you think?
It would be
twenty five years until the promise would be fulfilled. How would you react to
having to wait that long for something the Lord told you were going to happen?
What kind of attitude would you have? We know that for Abraham and Sara it wasn’t
always easy because they tried to bring about the promise in their own way
through the servant girl Hagar. Ishmael is the product of Abraham’s
unfaithfulness to God. We may produce something on our own, but when it is not
part of God’s plan, we will have to leave it alone and show God we can be
trusted to obey Him.
Have you
heard the Lord speak to you about an area of your life? How long has it been
since you were given your promise? In what ways have you jumped the gun and
tried to make things work on your own accord and failed to wait for the Lords
timing? I have found that every time I do something according to the Lords will
it goes more smoothly than I could have ever done on my own.
I know that
the Lord has called me to serve Him as a minister to His people. The hard part
is not rushing to make moves that God would not have me to make. Please pray
that I would be patient and have an enduring faith like Abraham.
Live Long,
Pray Hard, Die Well!
