Christianity Oasis Forum

[logi bear]

This is a devotional written by one of the Pastors of my Church, it was very encouraging, so i thought i would share. (yes i have permission to post this)

Wait for God's Plan
January 2nd, 2012

No perfect feet walk the path of faith. We can sometimes make a mess of things. We are all flawed and we all mess up at times. Hebrews 6:12 tells us that it’s through faith and patience that we inherit the promises of God. As God makes promises to us: Faith believes the promises of God; Hope anticipates the promises of God; and patience waits for the promises of God. Griffin Thomas said, “The union of faith and patience is one of the prime necessities of true spiritual life.”

I don’t really struggle as much with faith as much as I do with patience. Patience, for me, can be very difficult. One person said, “Patience is a virtue. Possess it if you can. Found seldom in a woman, never in a man.” I don’t know about you, but that little poem certainly describes me. I need more patience. And I ask the Lord for more patience, daily. If dealing with people or everyday trials, or if just waiting on Him, I need patience. I just don’t like to wait. I think that Americans, in general, don’t like to wait. We don’t even have to wait for a cup of coffee. We have these Keurig coffee machines and they give us a cup of coffee in an instant. We don’t like to wait.

But as we walk with the Lord, many times, He has us wait. He is working in us that virtue of patience that He finds necessary for us. As we look at Abraham and Sarah, in Genesis 16, and their barrenness, we see patience being worked in them. It was a very hard thing to not have a child, especially at their age, in those days. Today, you can be married and have no children and people think that’s normal. Back at the time of Abraham and Sarah, it was a blessing of God when you had a full quiver. God promised them a child a decade ago, yet they are still childless in Genesis 16.

God gives us the freedom and the grace to do whatever we want. He has given us free will. We can study the Bible, or not. We can walk with Him, or not. He has given us the ability to make our own choices. As Christians, we have to understand that even though His grace allows us to go and do what we want to do, there will be those scars and marks upon us anytime we wander back to Egypt. You can’t go back to Egypt and tamper with the things there, and expect to come out clean. You won’t come out with no strings attached—there will be baggage. Yes, the Lord will allow you to do your own thing, but in doing your own thing, you will come out marked and scarred from those times of walking away from the Lord.

God wasn’t acting in the time that they wanted, so Sarah gave Abraham her handmaid for which to bear a child. We think we need to give God a hand—help Him move along. We do not need to use natural resources to help God. That’s foolishness. God doesn’t need our help. His timing is perfect and His ways past finding out. At the time, she was 75 years old. And she helps God and says to Abraham to take her handmaid. Maybe she figured her time was up and there was no way that God was going to do this. We can be very vulnerable to want to take the easy way—what makes sense, while we are in a place of waiting—having our patience tried. Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid, was an Egyptian. Satan was seeking to put a counterfeit heir in the place of the promise of God. The consequences of any sin flare out as a chain reaction. That’s what happens with Hagar.

God knows all about you. He has every hair on your head numbered because of His love for you. Jeremiah 29:11 says that He knows the plans He has for us, to give you a future and a hope. That is His heart for us. The Lord waited to give Abraham and Sarah a son until their physical bodies were no longer physically able. It’s amazing how the Lord does things. Many times, He does things so opposite of the way we want or thought they would be done. Don’t question God for His methods and wonder about His timing and why He does a thing the way He does. Trust Him. Trust that patience has its perfect work as He sees fit to do that good work in our lives, for His glory. No perfect feet walk the path of faith. We are a work in progress. God is more interested in us than we are interested in ourselves. God has a plan and a purpose for you and He loves you. Maybe you are waiting. God is working something out, for the good. Wait.