I’ve waited … the length of time doesn’t really matter … some days more patiently than others.
I do my best to hold things together, to keep my eyes turned upward, to do the next right thing. Then, somehow, it gets to be too much.
The crack is tiny at first, but it widens and extends until I can’t hold my thoughts together any more. The ideas I’ve been contemplating flood in and drown my resolve.
This trusting stuff is too hard so I decide to put Plan B into action. Click To TweetHave you ever been there?
That's when we find ourselves standing beside Sarai in Genesis 16:1-2. Click To Tweet“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, ‘The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.'”
Let’s give the lady a break. She stuck by her husband in his wandering adventure, even when he told her to lie about being his sister which led to an Egyptian pharoah taking her as his wife. She endured her culture’s shame for being childless for years. And 10 of them were spent in the Promised Land where everything was supposed to be made right.
Surely we can understand how Sarai’s hope in The Almighty One’s covenant was frustrated to the point of disappearing. We know what it’s like to stare at Plan A and not see any movement … for a long time. She deserves our empathy.
One little word gives us the clue about where Sarai went wrong. She said, “perhaps I can build a family through her [her maidservant].” The I makes it clear Sarai had given up on God, choosing to make her own way instead.
She convinced her husband to follow her suggestion and the child she craved was conceived. Disruption in the household was an unexpected result. Sarai had to live in the midst of the turmoil of her plan for 14 years. That’s when the LORD announced the fulfillment of His plan and Isaac was born, the promised heir from her union with Abraham.
This account makes me wonder about you and me. How much peace do we forfeit in our impatience with the Father’s hand? How much time do we lose on the detours we attempt around Plan A? What would our lives be like if we chose faith over restlessness?
Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Click To TweetHow serious is your struggle with Plan A? How close are you to enacting Plan B?
Let me know in the Comments.
*unless otherwise noted, NIV1984