As He Said!

As He Said!

Genesis 21:1-2 NIV

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and 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.

Let us consider the history behind the words of the verse above. God had opened his mouth many years before this story and had made promises to Abraham and Sarah about children. Years rolled by, and it appeared to both of them as if the person who promised had forgotten, or had lost the power to fulfil his words. Just as we do today, we hear from God but because of delays, pressures, issues and people's views, we begin to doubt the full authenticity of what we heard. We begin to subject the awesome God to rational and logical processes, thinking that God can be fitted into our narrow, myopic and limited views. We want to define Him based on our present experiences. The story of this couple keeps telling us that God cannot be boxed into a corner, and He does not really care to satisfy our curiosity. He has bigger plans than our human minds can ever fathom. 

The beautiful words we focus on today are: 'as he had said'; 'as he had promised'; and 'at the time God promised him'. These refer to power, ability, capacity and capability. If there is anything we must trust as human beings, it is the words spoken by the Word himself. As He speaks, He is speaking himself and placing his reputation, name, life and nature on the line, and because He is a jealous God, He will guard his name against all scandals. He has no nature of deceit or double-speak, and he always watches over his words to bring them to fulfilment. There is something amazing about God's timing. When you have waited patiently, you realize that He stepped in at just the right time you needed him most, not when your own calculation demanded it. We are the ones who have a biological clock for things to happen; we are the ones who want to define and determine a 'shelf-life' for events and milestones in our lives.  

We are the ones who seek to elevate budgetting and forecasting over God's timely and adequate provision. We may trust in hard evidence that is tangible, but whilst it is very important to plan, we must never forget that nothing beats God's timing and nothing can be better than having God step into your situation at the 'right' time. The word of  encouragement for this season we are in is this:  Wait for God's appointed time. It is critical to get a Word from God's mouth today and stake your life on it. God already stakes his life and reputation on his Word and you can rest assured that he knows what He is doing. At his own 'set time', He will turn things around for good. After all, it is to His glory that He is found to be faithful and also very dependable. Wait for Him, wait on Him, wait with patience as God declares His nature and power through you. God’s time of favour is here.