God is Always On Time
The first two verses of Genesis 20 really caught my eye. There are three statements testifying to God's faithfulness and constancy. "The Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said." "The Lord did for Sarah what he had promised." "Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the very time God had promised him."
Twenty-five years earlier the Lord had promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numberless as the stars in the heavens. (Gen. 15:5) Although at this point Abraham and Sarah were already old, the Scripture says that Abraham believed what God had told him and it was credited to him as righteousness. In the very next chapter, although it was years later, Sarah got tired of waiting for God and decided to take matters into her own hands. She gave her servant, Hagar, to Abraham and said "perhaps I can build a family through her. (Notice the "I"!!) Gen. 16:2. Ishmael was born and the world is still paying for that decision with the constant fighting between Ishmael's descendants and Isaac's descendants.
In Genesis 18 the Lord came to Abraham and told him that at the same time next year Sarah would have a son. If you are following along in the Bible reading program you just read that two days ago, and know that when Sarah heard this she laughed. She was past the age of being able to bear children and had been barren all those years. Scripture doesn't tell us whether Sarah finally believed or not, but I believe that Abraham remained steadfast in his belief that God would so what he said. He just didn't know how God would do it!!
But God did do what He said He would do and at the very time He said he would do it. Why didn't God allow Sarah to have a child when it was still naturally possible for her? I think it is because he wanted Abraham and Sarah to see that this child was indeed a gift from Him and that with God nothing is too hard.
The Lord always does what He says and what He has promised and He does it on time. Usually not on our time. Lazarus had been dead four days when Jesus showed up at their place. Martha said to Jesus, "If you had been here, my brother would not have died." (John 11:12) Mary and Martha probably felt Jesus was four days late. Have you ever felt that Jesus was "four days late" showing up for something you had need of? Dr. Dobson wrote in his book When God Doesn't Make Sense, "Haven't you noticed that Jesus usually shows up about four days late? He often arrives after we have wept and worried and paced the floor--after we have sweated out the medical examination or fretted our way through business reverses. If He had arrived on time we could have avoided much of the stress that occurred in His absence. Yet it is extremely important to recognize that He is never actually late. His timetable for action is simply different that ours. And it is usually slower!" (Page 52)
Dr. Dobson further writes, "He does not explain Himself to man. We can say with confidence that while His purposes and plans are very different from ours, He is infinitely just and His timing is always perfect. He intervenes at just the right moment for our ultimate good. Until we hear from Him, then, we would be wise not to get in a lather." (Page 58)
Do you have a promise from God you are holding on to? Does it seem that God is "four days late?" Keep hanging onto your promise. God will fulfill it and at the perfect time. You will know that God fulfilled the promise and it wasn't something that you made happen.
Tomorrows Bible Reading - Genesis 22, Matthew 21, Nehemiah 11, Acts 21
God is good all the time,
Naomi Brinkman
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