The worst part of not knowing, is not knowing.
Time can be our greatest gift and our greatest test.
When my husband was laid off from his job two years ago, nothing I was reading in Romans jumped out at me until I read Romans 4:16-25. This portion of the Bible became life and breath to my very being. For twenty-four months I have soaked in these scriptures: Abraham’s story in Genesis, his faith, and sometimes the lack thereof, and yes, his mistakes, and God’s faithfulness to keep His promises.
It wasn’t just that my husband was laid off his job and was immediately self-employed, but stress begin pouring in from many directions. If your life feels like it is disintegrating before your eyes, know I have felt that emotion.
It’s hard to wait on God in these situations, especially when time goes on and on and on and there is no big miraculous moment when everything shifts for the better.
It’s difficult to know what to do or not do. You try a little of everything looking to see what door God will open or what opportunity he will bless or not bless. Abraham didn’t do this real well and often we don’t either.
Over and over we hear it said in scripture that Abraham believed God and because of this he was made right with God and he was a friend of God. In Hebrews, Romans, and James God brags on Abraham and his faith, yet Abraham was NOT perfect and neither was his faith when you read the details in Genesis.
And then there was this: “But Sarai, Abram’s wife, had no children” (Genesis 16:1). The facts can stare us down and blast our confidence.
Are you there? Have you been there? I have.
Maybe you’re seeing the very opposite of your desire. Everything looks like it’s blatantly falling apart or at least not changing for the better.
We believe God. Time passes. The facts of our lives that we have had so much faith to see transformed, are not. Our faith gets dry and crumbles into bits and pieces. We can’t understand where God is or why He is allowing this.
God had given Abraham reassurance and confirmations of His promises for Abraham and Sarah, and yet time plays tricks on our minds. It causes us to question. To wonder what we are doing wrong or if we are not doing enough or if we heard from God at all or if He has forgotten who and where we are and what He promised.
When Sarai gave Hagar to Abraham with the intentions of him getting her pregnant, she was following a custom or common practice of that time. She was not following God’s instructions.
Trying to produce what God has promised on our own, through substitutes and common practices, reaps all kinds of havoc. We don’t play God well.
Faith can require long obedience. Faith requires releasing control.
We don’t enjoy practicing faith. We like to be the boss of the results of our faith. This is not trust.
We’d rather tell God what we expect from our efforts. We’d rather do what we see others do verses what God is asking us to do.
Will we Wait? Trust? Obey? Believe?
Faith can be our joy and strength if we let it.
If God promises it, He will bring it to pass. We must not let time and circumstances dilute our trust in a God who can and will fulfill what He has promised. This is not easy. This requires us to keep our eyes and heart facing Jesus morning, noon, and night. Especially when we are weak and tired. I get it. Everyone of us have our moments with circumstances that weigh us down, deplete our energy, and leave us tempted to give in to whatever is easiest.
““Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed” (Genesis 16:2).
His actions showed a lack of faith. We’ve all been here. We’ve all tried to hurry God’s timing and promises at one time or another in our lives. This usually does not work out too well for any of us.
Yet, Abraham’s mistake did not stop God. You can’t stop God either.
You may create a mess. You may live with consequences that complicate things.
God is God.
He can handle our mess. No problem, even the one we create, is NOT too complicated for God.
Abraham was eighty-six when his first son, Ishmael was born. Thirteen years later, when Abraham was ninety-nine the Lord appeared to Him again. It’s the thirteen years in between life’s events and hearing God’s voice that kills our hopes. It’s seeing nothing new. It’s the long waiting and obedience in the desert that gets hard.
The worst part of not knowing, is not knowing.
Faith is so much easier when our answer comes quick. This is where I want to camp out and God keeps moving me further and further from this place. Will we trust him?
Can I encourage you from the middle today? Lean hard on your faith in God. Repeat His words more than your own. Let a tenacity form in your inner being that no matter what, the enemy will not win in your life!
God will strengthen you in ways you’ve never known.
Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah when Abraham was one hundred years old.
God keeps His word.
“This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who brings into existence what didn’t exist before” (Romans 5:17).
Cheering you on in your faith today beautiful one.
You can do this with God’s help and you will see God’s blessings in your life. “You are blessed, because you believed that the Lord would do what he said” (Luke 1:45).
With ya in the middle and believing it will happen,
Joelle Povolni
P.S. If you have enjoyed this post you may also enjoy, Will You Trust Me?
