When Waiting Gets Hard: The Mess We Make When We Bypass God's Plan

This past week I came across a story that was just fascinating and I haven't stopped talking about it since then. Every time you look at the trouble in the Middle East and all the junk going on over there, you realize that it kind of goes back to this story from Genesis chapter 16. It's a story about promises broken - and the incredible mess we can make when we get tired of waiting on God.

The Setup: A Promise and a Problem

Abraham and Sarah had been together for about 10 or 11 years when God made them an incredible promise. When Abraham was 75 years old, God said, "Hey Abraham, pick up your stuff. I'm going to take you to a new land. You're really going to be blessed. I'm going to use you to bless other people, your descendants."

There was just one problem: "They hadn't had any children up to that point. Abraham was 75 years old, Sarah was 65 years old. They had not had any kids whatsoever. It's kind of hard to have descendants if you don't have kids. You got to start somewhere, right?"

Fast forward another 10 years. Abraham was now 85, Sarah was 75, and still no children. "Every once in a while we might hear of a 75 year old man fathering a child. But when's the last time you heard a 75 year old woman giving birth to a child? It doesn't happen, does it?"

When Patience Runs Out

That's when Sarah came up with Plan B. Genesis 16:2 records her words to Abraham: "Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go into my maid. Perhaps I will obtain children through her."

What a mess this created! Sarah essentially told her husband to sleep with Hagar, their Egyptian servant, to produce the child God had promised. "I cannot begin to imagine what it would be like to live in that kind of culture... for a wife to say to her husband, I want you to go... to send your husband off to be with this woman for sex."

Abraham went along with it. Hagar got pregnant. Then the real drama started. "When she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight. Hagar's going na na na na na na. You know, I have a kid, you don't. That's basically Sanders interpretation."

The Blame Game Begins

When the plan backfired, Sarah did what we often do - she started playing the blame game. First, she blamed God: "The Lord has prevented me from bearing children." Then she blamed Abraham: "May the Lord judge between you and me" (Genesis 16:5).

"So you gonna play the blame game now, Sarah? Is that what you're gonna do?... Just because God delays something doesn't mean he's denying something. Just because he's telling you not now does not mean that he's saying no, never. We need to understand that."

The Danger of Second-Guessing God

Here's what I learned from this story: "Anytime you and I second guess God, it's a pretty dangerous thing to do." Sarah's desire for a child controlled her life. "She wanted that more than being loyal to God. She wanted that more than her ability to trust in God."

"How many times do we have to be told that God's timing is not necessarily our timing?" We live in a culture that wants everything now. "I am hungry now. An hour and a half. Really? I am hungry now. So you stick it in. What do you do? You basically do the same kind of thing Sarah did. You run, find something else, right?"

God's Faithfulness Despite Our Failures

But here's the beautiful part of this story: "Even when we mess up and when we mess up royally, God looks on our heart... God looks at us and he sees a whole lot more than an incident or two or three or four or five, even in our lives. He sees that heart that longs for him."

God didn't abandon Abraham and Sarah because of their mistake. "If you look at this story, who was the real victim? I think it was God... But he comes out being the hero. And God still is a hero."

Putting It Into Practice

Maybe you haven't gone through anything exactly like Sarah and Abraham, "But you've gone through some times in your life where you've betrayed God. Let's just put it out there. You've betrayed God. I'm here to tell you this same God is waiting for you today, and he still has a plan for your life."

The question is: "What's stopping you from making things right with God today and pulling yourself in the center of God's will, saying, God, you are number one. Not my spouse, not my girlfriend, not my boyfriend, not my kids. Nobody, God, not even me. But God, you are number one."

Remember: "If it's you and God against anybody, you're on the winning team. Every single time you're on the winning team because you're with God."

When waiting gets hard, don't create your own Plan B. Trust that God's timing is perfect, even when it doesn't feel like it.