Week of Monday January 5 – January 11
Discipline of Delay – Man as Instructor
“And God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.’ Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, ‘Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’ And Abraham said to God, ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before you!’ God said, ‘No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.’” - Genesis 17:15-19 ESV
Like Abraham and Sarah, we don’t like delays. We live in an instant gratification culture and have grown accustomed to getting what we want “Now.” It started with instant coffee and TV dinners, then graduated to microwaves and drive-through windows, and now we get curbside pick-ups, overnight deliveries from Amazon, and order stuff through something called “Instacart.” We don’t want to wait for anything. On a multiple lane road approaching a light, we try to figure out which car will move out the fastest on green and we pull in behind them. We do the same at the grocery checkout, counting items in the carts before making our move… or is that just me? We want what we want and we want it now!
Here's the problem with that approach to life with the Lord: God doesn’t work on our timetable. Sometimes He makes us wait. That takes both our faith and patience, two things we are often short on. Yet both are necessary to live a God-honoring life. Abraham and Sarah had to learn that the hard way. Because of the Lord’s delay in fulfilling the promise of a child, they tried to “help God out” by substituting His plan with their own. In chapter 16, Sarah offered her servant Hagar to Abraham, she bore him Ishmael, and that marked the beginning of what became not only a source of family strife, but eventually an international conflict that will last until Jesus returns. But I will leave that discussion for another time.
The takeaway is this: We must learn the “discipline of delay.” I came across this teaching by M.H. Lount:
God's best gifts come slowly. We could not use them if they did not. Many a man, called of God to...a work in which he is pouring out his life, is convinced that the Lord means to bring his efforts to a successful conclusion. Nevertheless, even such a confident worker grows discouraged at times and worries because results do not come as rapidly as he would desire. But growth and strength in waiting are results often greater than the end so impatiently longed for. Paul had time to realize this as he lay in prison. Moses must have asked, 'Why?' many times during the delays in Midian and in the wilderness. Jesus Himself experienced the discipline of delay in His silent years before His great public ministry began.
See God wants to build our faith that leads to our spiritual growth. That is why He often withholds success until we have learned patience. The Lord teaches us this needed lesson through the discipline of delay.
We see that in Genesis 17. In fact, over a decade had passed since the previous promise God gave Abraham in chapter 15. Because of the debacle in chapter 16, Abraham and Sarah endured years of silence, which reminds us that we should never mistake the silence of God for the absence of God. God was always near and though heaven didn’t give him advice, it gave him time, and a deepening of his faith and patience as he waited on his God.
Men, it is often the case that what God does in us is more important than what God does for us. What does God want to do in us and through us as we wait on Him faithfully and patiently? It could just be that what we learn between the God’s promise to us and God’s fulfillment in us will shape us in ways that affect not only our life, but the lives of those we love and influence!
- Have you ever experienced a delay from the Lord? How did you handle it? What could you do differently when you experience another delay?
- Do you take the time to look back and make a few notes on how God’s delays helped build your faith and patience and record how He ultimately came through? Are you being intentional on passing along the torch of faith by example to a new generation of believers in Christ?
- Pray for God’s help in building your faith and patience through the discipline of delay.
Discipline of Delay – Man as Instructor
“And God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.’ Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, ‘Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’ And Abraham said to God, ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before you!’ God said, ‘No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.’” - Genesis 17:15-19 ESV
Like Abraham and Sarah, we don’t like delays. We live in an instant gratification culture and have grown accustomed to getting what we want “Now.” It started with instant coffee and TV dinners, then graduated to microwaves and drive-through windows, and now we get curbside pick-ups, overnight deliveries from Amazon, and order stuff through something called “Instacart.” We don’t want to wait for anything. On a multiple lane road approaching a light, we try to figure out which car will move out the fastest on green and we pull in behind them. We do the same at the grocery checkout, counting items in the carts before making our move… or is that just me? We want what we want and we want it now!
Here's the problem with that approach to life with the Lord: God doesn’t work on our timetable. Sometimes He makes us wait. That takes both our faith and patience, two things we are often short on. Yet both are necessary to live a God-honoring life. Abraham and Sarah had to learn that the hard way. Because of the Lord’s delay in fulfilling the promise of a child, they tried to “help God out” by substituting His plan with their own. In chapter 16, Sarah offered her servant Hagar to Abraham, she bore him Ishmael, and that marked the beginning of what became not only a source of family strife, but eventually an international conflict that will last until Jesus returns. But I will leave that discussion for another time.
The takeaway is this: We must learn the “discipline of delay.” I came across this teaching by M.H. Lount:
God's best gifts come slowly. We could not use them if they did not. Many a man, called of God to...a work in which he is pouring out his life, is convinced that the Lord means to bring his efforts to a successful conclusion. Nevertheless, even such a confident worker grows discouraged at times and worries because results do not come as rapidly as he would desire. But growth and strength in waiting are results often greater than the end so impatiently longed for. Paul had time to realize this as he lay in prison. Moses must have asked, 'Why?' many times during the delays in Midian and in the wilderness. Jesus Himself experienced the discipline of delay in His silent years before His great public ministry began.
See God wants to build our faith that leads to our spiritual growth. That is why He often withholds success until we have learned patience. The Lord teaches us this needed lesson through the discipline of delay.
We see that in Genesis 17. In fact, over a decade had passed since the previous promise God gave Abraham in chapter 15. Because of the debacle in chapter 16, Abraham and Sarah endured years of silence, which reminds us that we should never mistake the silence of God for the absence of God. God was always near and though heaven didn’t give him advice, it gave him time, and a deepening of his faith and patience as he waited on his God.
Men, it is often the case that what God does in us is more important than what God does for us. What does God want to do in us and through us as we wait on Him faithfully and patiently? It could just be that what we learn between the God’s promise to us and God’s fulfillment in us will shape us in ways that affect not only our life, but the lives of those we love and influence!
- Have you ever experienced a delay from the Lord? How did you handle it? What could you do differently when you experience another delay?
- Do you take the time to look back and make a few notes on how God’s delays helped build your faith and patience and record how He ultimately came through? Are you being intentional on passing along the torch of faith by example to a new generation of believers in Christ?
- Pray for God’s help in building your faith and patience through the discipline of delay.