Abram and Haggar

Genesis 15-17:27 (The Message)

Abram’s descendents, today we studied a whole lot about God promising Abram a family. Yesterday we read that God promised Abram as many descendants as dust of the earth he walked on. Today He tells Abram to look up at the sky and count the stars. He tells him he will have this many descendants.

Imagine Abram and Sarai, who are elderly, being told that they are going to be parents of great nations. They must have thought God was crazy! They decided that God must mean that Abram would have children with someone else. Sarai offers him her maid, Haggar.

How often has God spoken to us and we took things into our own hands thinking this is the way God meant?

I remember when my husband and I were purchasing our home. This was in 2004 when it was a sellers market and homes were getting contracts the day they went up for sell.

I felt strongly that we were supposed to buy a house in a certain area. I felt God calling us to that area. My husband also felt that call and we had our minds set on purchasing  in that area. Sure enough, the first house we looked at in that area my husband and I fell in love with.

As the weeks continued we both started noticing little things about the house that bothered us. My husband noticed structural things. I was watching the economy begin to take a dip in the housing market. I noticed that things were starting to slow down and that still small voice in my head told me to wait a year before buying.

My husband and I both had convinced each other so thoroghly that this is what God wanted that as these things began to get noticed we didn’t want to dissapoint each other by bringing them up. We moved forward with the closing, both with a knot in our stomachs and a smile on our face for each other.

It wasn’t until nearly two years later when the housing market had collapsed, our daughter diagnosed with cancer, and foreclosure notices coming in the mail that we each spoke of the concerns that we had about buying that home. We both realized that God had a bigger, better promise waiting for us but we were impatient.

This is what Sarai and Abram did. They got impatient and Abram had Ishmael with Sarai’s maid Haggar. God still blessed this child, dispite the situation. He still promised to make a great nation from this child.

Imagine the 13 years before God came and promised another child to Abram. There must have been many lessons learned, and even more patience than what was originally required of Abram.

I can say that we too are learning lessons from our impatience. We did eventually lose that home. We struggle fincancially still today. We have no hope of ever getting another home. Through it all I can say my faith is stronger than it ever has been. I learn lessons daily. I know that God will bless us despite our impatience.

God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah. He told Abraham he would have a son named Isaac from Sarah. God came through on his promise for Abraham.

Is there anything that you got impatient for?  Where has God blessed you for being patient and waiting on Him?