Exhausted patience?

Just the other day, I was speaking with my sister and she mentioned how God really does answer prayers, she cited the example of how a prophecy that was said of my parents many years ago had come to pass, funny how my brother mentioned that same prophecy the very next day, I knew God was speaking to me. Just as if He really wanted to drive home His point, I read some of my old blog posts (Read it here) and (here) and God reminded me of how His plans are not work-in-progress. These words of Paul David Tripp also ministered to me “It is a sweet thing that we serve a dissatisfied God who has destinations in mind for us that we would never choose for ourselves. It really is a good thing that he will not be satisfied until he has gotten us exactly where he created us and re-created us to be. Most of us would have been satisfied to stay at home, and many of us would have quit the journey long before it was completed. But our heavenly Father won't give up until each one of his children has completed the journey.”

The Lord has been speaking to me lately about trust/patience and the stories of Abraham and Joseph keeps coming up. So today, I decided to share with you some of the things that has helped strengthen my faith/trust in God. I will try to summarize it so that it won't be so much of a long read.

Abram was 75 years old when God promised that He would make a great nation of him Genesis 12: 1 - 4.  We read in Genesis 16 that 11 years after that promise was made, Sarai 'tried to help God', I know often times, a lot of us act like Sarai, we try to help God and take steps that we think will aid in the fulfillment of His promises to us.   

And just as if God was playing games with Abram and Sarai's hearts, He appeared again in Genesis 17, when Abraham was 99 years old and not only did He state that same promise of making nations of him, God also gave him a new name - Abraham (which means "father of many). You'll surely agree with me that this man's patience and faith were super-duper, if I were Abram, I would have rolled my eyes at God and probably exclaimed 'father of many indeed!'    

And yet again God appeared in Genesis 18: 14 but this time, I noticed something different, He asked Abraham "Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Did you notice those words "at the appointed time"? And yes, "For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him". Genesis 21: 2. 

God also kept to the words He spoke to Abram in Genesis 15: 13 "And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years" as we see in Exodus 12: 41 "And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt". This proves to us that "The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations". Psalm 33: 11

So whenever you feel like you are running out of patience, remember Abraham had to wait for 25 good years before he saw a glimpse of what God promised him, I mean, having 2 sons did not and could never have translated into becoming a great nation, could it? But if you read the Bible, you would see that God's promises to Abraham did come to pass - at the appointed time. It took 22 years before Joseph saw his dreams come true, Genesis 37 - 49 and even Jesus waited for the appointed time John 7: 6 - 9. 

“If we are going to learn to trust God in adversity, we must believe God will allow nothing to subvert His glory so He will allow nothing to spoil the good He is working out in us and for us.” Jerry Bridges so I ask that you "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord". Psalm 27: 14 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it". Isaiah 55: 8 - 11