August 27: Thoughts on Psalm 27:14

"Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart, and wait for the LORD."
~ Psalm 27:14

It seems most of us are waiting on God for something, whether it's a job, or a spouse, or a child, or simply a revelation about what His will for us is. We cry out to God because we don't know what to do. We ask for stuff, or for His guidance, and sometimes it seems like it's slow in coming.

If I'm being honest, sometimes I feel like telling God to get with the program. But then I have to sit down and have a little talk with myself, because, well, He's God - and He kind of wrote the program. In moments like those, I have to realize that I'm the one who needs to get with it. God knows what He's doing, even if I don't.

Here's what happens when we wait for the Lord's timing:

"Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it." (Psalm 37:34)

"Do not say, 'I'll pay you back for this wrong!' Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you." (Proverbs 20:22)

"But those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (Isaiah 40:31)

What happens when we try to take control for ourselves instead of waiting on God's perfect timing?

In Genesis 16, Abram's wife Sarai, who is infertile, gives her servant Hagar to her husband in order that he might have a child with her. She does this even though God has already promised her that she and Abram will eventually have a child together. She's tired of waiting on the Lord, so she takes matters into her own hands. Abram, following Sarai's directions, gets with Hagar, who winds up pregnant. As you can imagine, Sarai's not too pleased about this, even though it was her idea in the first place, and she was really harsh and rude to Hagar (as though this was somehow Hagar's fault). Of Ishmael, the Lord says, "He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers" (Genesis 16:12). Wow, Ishmael sounds like a model child, right? That went well, didn't it? Not really. And why? Because Ishmael wasn't the child God intended for this couple to have.

So, fast forward 13 or 14 years. It's finally God's time for this couple. He renames them Abraham and Sarah. Abraham is 100 years old, and Sarah's old too, but it doesn't matter; it is God's time for this couple. So God gives them a child (the original child they were promised), and they name him Isaac. Isaac is the one that the covenant of Abraham goes through. Isaac is Abraham's heir. Isaac is the child God intended for Abraham and Sarah, and if they hadn't disobeyed God and tried to work around His will, who's to say they might not have had him sooner? And now they have this extra child to worry about, and Sarah casts Hagar and Ishmael out of her household because they offend her...and the whole situation is just bad.

If they had just waited in obedience on God's timing, it wouldn't have had to be that way.

There's a bit of a contrast here. If we wait on the Lord, good things happen. If we don't wait on the Lord, not-so-good things happen. It's clear that we'll be better off if we wait on God's timing for our lives. We should be strong against the temptation to take matters in our own hands, take heart that the Lord has our best interests in mind, and wait for His perfect timing for things to happen in our lives.