Are you a take charge kind of person or do you wait patiently to see how things happen? I am definitely a take charge kind of girl, which works well for me except when the Lord tells me to wait. Waiting is one of the hardest things in the world for me to do. Waiting patiently is almost impossible. God must know that about me, because the word patiently is only used nine times in the NIV. Seven of those times the word is preceded by the word wait.
Psalm 37:7 says “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.” In Psalm 40:1 King David says when he waited patiently for the Lord, the Lord heard his cry. Hebrews 6:15 says “And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.”
Abraham waited patiently on the Lord, but Sarai did not. Let’s face it, she was an old woman and God had said Abraham would have a child, from his own seed. She started thinking about the reality of that taking place and decided she had to do something, so she decided to help God out. Obviously, from her point of view, God couldn’t possibly pull it off on His own, so she came up with plan B.
In Genesis 16 we read how Sarai determined the only way Abram would have a child of his own was to have it with her slave, so she gave her slave to Abram for him to sleep with her. What happened? Well, Sarai got what she said she wanted. Hagar got pregnant, then Sarai got mad at Hagar, she got mad at Abram and ultimately she got mad at God because the plan didn’t work. There was only one problem with Sarai’s anger. It wasn’t directed at the right person. Sarai had no one to be angry with except herself. She had taken matters into her own hands instead of waiting patiently on the Lord and trusting Him. You see, with God there is no plan B. He always operates with plan A in mind because He knows no one can thwart His plans [Isaiah 14:27].
Man am I having to remind myself of this lesson daily. I have a hard time waiting. God called me to do something and I have done it, now the rest is up to Him. The only problem with the situation is I don’t wait well. You think He might be teaching me something here? What about you? Are you waiting for Him to act in a situation in your life? Is it driving you crazy? Well, friend, you have two options. You can intervene and help Him out (like He needs our help) and end up with a mess like Sarai, or you can wait patiently on the Lord and know that, like David, He hears you. So what’s it going to be?