Doing Things My Way

"The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her." Genesis 16:2

These were the haunting words of Sarai, Abram's wife, when she arrived at the point of frustration with God for not granting her a son. She had prayed and prayed without results and decided to take matters into her own hands. At her direction, her husband slept with Hagar, the maidservant, and impregnated her, which eventually made Sarai so jealous she banished Hagar and her son Ishmael.

Waiting on God is the toughest spiritual practice we are asked to do. There are so many unseen purposes for our wait, some which will be revealed and some which will not. Impatience is the worst weapon to have in our arsenal because it is weapon we always use against ourselves. Many times our blessings are sabotaged because we are unwilling to wait on God to receive His best for us. Out of our impatience, we birth an Ishmael and create another obstacle to receiving His best. Impatience is another way of questioning God and His soveriegnty and begins to corrode our trust in Him. We replace our prayers and petitions with questions of God's character such as "Has He forgotten me?" and "Is He punishing me?".

Most of the time waiting on God means He is loving you and aligning you with the timing that will bring in the largest blessing. Our lives do not operate in a vacume. Our blessings and answered prayers must take other people into consideration as it affects their lives also. It is not just about us! Another reason for waiting upon God is that we are not ready to receive His fulfilled purpose and blessing. He knows when our hearts and minds are spiritually aligned with His to receive it and we will not be the recipient until this alignment takes place.

The question we must ask ourselves is "Am I surrendered to the wait or am I giving birth to an Ishmael?"