In Romans 4, Paul discusses justification by faith,
specifically referencing Abraham as an example. The Lord promised Abraham that
his wife, Sarah, would bear him a son in their old age. When Sarah heard this,
she laughed at God. She even went so far as to take matters into her own hands
and insisted that Abraham have a child with her maid.
I think that’s a very easy thing to do. To become
discouraged or impatient, or to simply lose sight of where God is with regard
to our circumstances and feel the need to take control. But every single time
we take matters into our own hands, we simply get in God’s way. It’s not easy
to wait and be patient during the seasons of life that we wouldn’t consider
ideal, or even appealing. But it’s necessary.
Because in every season there is a lesson to be learned and character to be
developed. If your dry season really is as pointless as it seems to be, God simply wouldn’t have included it in His plan for your life.
A couple of weeks ago, I accepted a nursing job at a skilled
nursing facility in Loveland. Aaron and I had just decided to try to accelerate
our move up to Fort Collins, and this job offer seemed like an open door and an
answer to prayer. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The staff and management were
extremely unprofessional, and I was expected to do things in a way that cut
corners and jeopardized patients’ safety. I wasn’t sleeping and literally made
myself sick with worry and stress. The Lord made it very clear to me that it
was not the right place to begin my career, so last week I terminated my employment.
He’s also making it clear to me that I jumped the gun, and as a result, I made
things more difficult for myself.
In Romans 4, Paul writes of Abraham, “Without becoming weak in faith he
contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred
years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise
of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to
God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He is also able to
perform” (v. 19-21). How beautiful—and how challenging! Abraham made mistakes
along the way, sure; but the Lord made him a promise and held fast to it. This
is how we are called to live! God made his promise to Abraham at least 16 years
before it was fulfilled, and who knows how many years before that Abraham experienced his season of disappointment and discontentment with being
childless. But in all that time of waiting, "he did not waver." Amazing.
For whatever reason, it’s easy to put God in a box and to
forget the fact that the God who created the universe is the same God who is
orchestrating our lives today. But as children of God, we are called to have
faith like Abraham—to not waver in unbelief but grow strong in faith, give
glory to God, and know and believe in the depths of our hearts that He is able
to do “immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20). And not only to believe it, but to behave like we believe it--to live prayerfully and expectantly, always resting in knowing that God is at work and in control.
My challenge to anyone reading is this: if you're feeling discouraged or impatient in this season of life, press into God. Pray and ask with the mindset that God is at work, regardless of whether or not you see what He's doing. Ask Him what He's doing now before you begin to ask what He'll do next. And finally, continually remind yourself of what God has done, both in your life and in others', and always believe for miracles.
