Even though God told me to spend time with ALL the animals, I would not go near anything that looked or smelled like a bug or reptile. I left that up to Noah. I had to draw the line somewhere. Well maybe that's why God didn't choose for me to be on the ark. I have way too many allergies and stubbornness. He probably thought, "Nope, I cannot picture Teensy (a.k.a. Tanya) on the Ark, she just wouldn't make it out alive”. Lol
Well actually my new church is called "The Ark." If you look up at the ceiling in the sanctuary, it may resemble of what Noah's ark might have looked like. I know the church just changed its name to the Ark so I am pretty sure the ceiling had nothing to do with it, but sometimes my imagination takes the best of me.
Okay, so I went to church Sunday and the pastor talked about covenants with God. He had mentioned about how God may make a promise with you personally, but you should wait on God’s timing for the promise to come to pass. He said don’t do like Abraham and Sarah did. Don’t try to make God’s promise come to pass in your own way.
I will start out with Genesis 12; God tells Abram that he will make him a great nation. But Abram’s probably thinking: I am 75 years old, childless, and how can I make a great nation without children or descendents. Sarai didn’t feel that God would make Abram a father through her so she tells her hubby, “hey I’m old and gray, and way, waaaay up there in years. God won’t let me have children, so here is my maidservant. Go marry her, and have a child like God said even though it’s not happening with me.” (Okay she probably said it a little differently).
Abram says "okay, if I must. I mean God said he would give me a son. Right? So I have to do my ‘duty.’ It’s not going to happen unless I do something about it.” (emphasis is mine, again.)
Notice that he didn’t stop, and say: “I love you; I don’t want to “sleep” with anyone else.” He goes and marries the lovely Hagar. I am sorry, but with a name like Hagar, I am picturing an ugly witch with a wart on a long nose. Hagar doesn’t sound pretty to me. Lol Abram gets married, has a honeymoon with his new wife, than out pops a baby 9 months later. Sarai is bitter, and hurting. I can almost understand her pain, of wanting a child so badly, yet seeing someone else with a baby. It is very hard. Although she did put it on herself when she told her hubby to go have a baby. But now she’s so bitter, that she is mistreating Hagar.
In Genesis 17, God tells Abram,
“As for me, this is my covenant with you; You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram, your name will be Abraham. For I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful...As for you, you must keep my covenant... As for Sarai, your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai, her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations...”
Here’s my favorite part. Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “will a son be born to a man of 100 years old. Will Sarah bear a child at the age of 90?”
God told Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child. Well they weren't exactly at the childbearing age of 70, I mean 40 years or under. I mean Sarah may have been around 89 and Abraham about 99 years old. Can you imagine having a child at that age? I mean nowadays that's at your death bed, or umm...about to get your ticket to heaven, hopefully. If you know what I mean. Well they might have laughed, but maybe they were a little scared. Can you imagine a 90 yr old lady pregnant? She probably couldn't or didn’t want to think of it. I wonder if she still had the aches and pains of an older lady and dealing with pregnancy too! Was she having a hard time walking with a walker made out of rods and rocks? Being pregnant might have seemed like a big joke. Did they have C-section’s back then? Probably not.
Genesis 21 it says that the Lord was gracious to Sarah and gave her what he promised. She became pregnant and bore a son to her hubby in his old age. He named him Isaac. I like what Sarah says: “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” So she finally gets her baby; she is 100 years old now, and breastfeeding. Yes, Sarah, we can laugh with you; it doesn’t seem possible, but what God promised, he had it come to pass.
So many times we try to do things on our own. When God promises us things, we do what we can to make it come to pass. It’s like when I bought an emergency window ladder the other day. I had priced some of them online for $100 -$200 dollars. Well I found one at the second hand store for $10. Instead of saving my money and waiting to buy one, I saw what I thought was a great deal. Well I purchased this ladder. It only is for 2 story buildings. I live in a 3 story building. I figured, just maybe I can jump down the ladder one more story. It was actually a useless purchase for me and I wasted my money. There is no way I can use that ladder if there was a fire at my apartments. So instead of waiting and buying a better one, I am stuck with one that doesn’t do what I need it to do.
We need to wait on God’s promises. When God promises us something, He will do it. We just have to be patient, and not try to make the promise happen like Abraham and Sarah did by trying to have a baby through their maidservant or me trying to buy an emergency ladder that is one story too short.
Did God promise you something special? Something that is just for you? Or maybe did he promise something for your family? I know that God has personally promised me things in my own life that haven’t come to pass yet, but I have to do my best and wait and not try to make the promise happen on my own. We have to let them go, yet have faith and hope that they will come to pass, in God’s timing. Even if we have to wait until we are 100 years old for the promises to be fulfilled, it will be worth the wait, when God’s involved.
