Momentum: How To Ignite Your FaithSample

DON’T JUST DO SOMETHING. . . SIT THERE! I had a lot going on that day, but I was right on time for my doctor’s appointment. I was instructed to sign in, and then I heard those ominous words: “Take a seat in the waiting room.” I quickly rifled through the out-of-date magazines. I checked the news on my iPhone. I texted my wife. I read my latest e-mails. And that was in the first three minutes. As you can probably tell, I struggle just a little with waiting. But my suspicion is that you do too. Waiting feels so unproductive and passive. But St. Augustine said, “Patience is the companion of wisdom.” While in a season of waiting, impatience led Abraham and Sarah to make a very unwise decision. God had promised Abraham a child. But almost ten years had passed since the promise, and their biological clocks were ticking. Then Sarah found a loophole in the promise of God. He had promised Abraham a child, but he hadn’t said anything about Sarah being the mother. In essence, she came up with a strategy that involved using adultery to help fulfill God’s promise. Abraham agreed to the plan and slept with Sarah’s handmaid, Hagar, and Hagar became pregnant and gave birth to Ishmael (Genesis 15–16). As you can imagine, this plan resulted in all kinds of dysfunction, bitterness, and chaos. In God’s own time, he did give Abraham and Sarah the son of promise. The conflict today between Israel and the Arab nations traces back to Ishmael and Isaac. The consequences of Abraham and Sarah’s unwillingness to wait on God still reverberate through history even to this day. Part of being surrendered to God is learning to wait. God’s stopwatch doesn’t run the same as ours. So he makes us sit in the waiting room of life. He doesn’t tell us when he is coming. He doesn’t send an angel to explain the delay. Our circumstances might be screaming, “Don’t just sit there . . . do something!” But God is whispering, Don’t just do something . . . sit there! WHAT ABOUT YOU? Maybe you are in a season of waiting right now. You desperately want God to do something, but all you hear is “not yet”. When God’s answer is “not yet”, a question is imbedded in that answer: “Will you trust me?” Today’s Takeaway “Patience is the companion of wisdom” (St. Augustine).