it’s all in the timing…

when you get impatient in life you start trying to work it out yourself.  you get a dream from GOD, make the decision to go for it, and then when the delay comes and it’s not fast enough for you, you start trying to figure out ways of doing GOD’s dream on your own.  you start trying to force the issue. 

i pastored a church in las vegas for 15 years.  when we first moved there we were having some financial problems and we had the temptation to take what money we did have and go to the strip and let it ride.  we didn’t but many people did. 

abraham did this.  GOD said HE was going to give him a son.  at 75 abraham still didn’t have one.  sarah was incapable of conceiving.  he decided to have a child by hagar, sarah’s hand maiden.  hagar gets pregnant and bears a son.  they name him ishmael.  abraham thought he had the miracle child in ishmael.  GOD said that ishmael was not the miracle.  that was just a normal conception.  he wasn’t the baby GOD said would be the miracle baby.  GOD blessed ishmael anyway and he also became the father of a great nation.  he’s the father of all the arabs. 

but GOD said there would be another child.  later abraham had isaac through sarah who was way up in years and although she had never been able to have a child, at a grandmother’s age she had a baby.  isaac became the father of the jewish nation.

all of the commotion in the middle east between arabs and jews is just a family feud.  it’s been going on for thousands of years because abraham got in a hurry.  ishmael and isaac were half brothers.  whenever you hear of arabs being anti-semitic – that’s impossible.  both arabs and jews have the same father – abraham.  because abraham got in a hurry, we’ve had thousands of years of conflict.  impatience will get you into trouble.  GOD doesn’t need your help.  you need to relax. 

don't fret. instead: trust GOD’s timing.  psalm 37.7-8 (tlb), rest in the LORD, wait patiently for HIM to act. dDon’t fret and worry.  it only leads to harm. 

resting can be an act of faith.  it means you’re waiting on GOD. 

the verse says, wait patiently for HIM to act.  when you wait impatiently it doesn’t make waiting any better.  all being impatient does is make you miserable. 

just a thought from the front porch…