It’s a pleasure to hear from Rebekah Hawk this week! You can stop by the contributors page to learn more about her.
“But I just want you to read it to me right now!” Her puppy dog eyes and mournful whine reproached me. Exasperated, I explained to my six-year-old that I could not read a book to her right now because I was feeding the baby and then had to get dinner started. She has a tough time waiting for anything she wants, and tonight was no exception. I promised, for the umpteenth time, that I would definitely read her the book after dinner, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice.
I know how she feels though. I am not, by nature, very good at waiting for what I want. The Lord has taught me so much about waiting for His time and trusting His plans for my daily life, but I still often find myself stamping my foot in impatience and declaring, “But I want it now, Lord!”
In Romans 4, Paul shows us an incredible truth about waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises through the example of Abraham. Abraham shows us what it looks like to wait confidently for God to do what He says He will do.
When God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, He expanded upon His original promise of offspring as the stars in number. Here in Genesis 17, God promises to give Abraham his very own son to be his heir, and further promises that nations will come from him. The prophecy becomes startling when God renames him (from Abram to Abraham) and declares, “I have made you the father of many nations” in the PAST TENSE.
Wait! Isaac has not yet been conceived, Hagar has just delivered Ishmael by Abraham due to Sarah’s manipulative designs, and Abraham and Sarah are both well past child-bearing years. There is no practical reason to hope, believe, or expect, that Abraham will have many descendants at all, yet God speaks as though the son of promise has already been born! Despite their sin and doubt, God definitively states His intentions as though they have already been carried out.
Incredibly, we can be assured that God will continue to order our steps. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He will continue to perfect the good work He has begun in us. He will keep those and so many more promises He has made to us in His Word because in His mind, He has already done so! Because God is outside of the constraints of time, His promises are, for all practical purposes, already done, so absolute is His Will.
Oh, Lord, grow our faith to trust that since You are the God Who gave life to our dead-in-sin hearts and called into existence faith that wasn’t there before, You will do all You have said You will do.
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