Well, if you know anything about God, he doesn't always work that way. God seems to be much more concerned about the process we go through in getting somewhere than the actual destination itself. What's most valuable is not necessarily the blessing that lies at the end of the road but the things we learn and the ways we grow along the journey.
I was reading the story of Abraham this morning and was struck by his own impatience... not that I can blame him! Abraham was 75 years old and childless when God began to make him promises that his offspring would be God's chosen people and God would bless the world through them. After ten more years of waiting for God to give them a child, Abraham and his wife Sarah were still childless. They obviously were growing impatient and it seemed less and less likely that a man who was 85 and a woman who was now 75 would have children. So they decided to take things into their own hands. Sarah had a servant by the name of Hagar and decided that perhaps Abraham should sleep with her and they could have a surrogate child through her.
Hagar did indeed conceive a child for Abraham and it looked like perhaps their plan had worked. However God returned to Abraham when he was 99 years old, 24 years after he began promising Abraham descendants who would change the world, and he told him that his son Ishmael (Hagar's son) was not the chosen one but that he would still have a son with Sarah. A year later, 25 years after God's initial promises, when Abraham is 100 years old and Sarah is 90, their son Isaac was born.
Here's the kicker for me though... Along with Isaac, Ishmael would also grow into a great nation that would become some of the fiercest enemies to God's chosen people throughout all of history and even to this day. The repercussions of Abraham and Sarah's impatience became a long lasting stumbling block to the nation of Israel who were the descendants of Isaac.
So the obvious challenge for us (for me) is learning to be patient and wait on God. It's a difficult struggle for those of us who often lack patience, to wait patiently for God to fulfill his plans. But one of the obvious messages from this story is that our own impatience, and trying to force things to happen before it is time, can often cause more damage than it does good.
I personally have things that I've felt for 10+ years that God has called me to and it's a constant struggle to wait for God to fulfill his promise and not just try to make those things happen on my own.
So what are the promises that you are waiting for God to fulfill?
How well are you patiently waiting on him?
What are the possible repercussions if you become impatient and try to force things to happen?
Psalm 37:7
"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him..."
