​When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Exodus 32:1
 
While Moses was up on the mountain receiving instructions and even tablets written by the hand of God, the people get anxious because it was taking too long (40 days). They quickly write Moses off and demand man-made idols to worship and guide them. Only forty days! We were created to worship God, but how quickly we search for anything else to worship and follow.

It’s tempting to think if we were only witnesses to the Incredible miracles the Israelites, and later those walking with Jesus, were part of we would surely believe and never doubt. But the Israelites show us this is not the case.

Life happens. Things don’t go smoothly or according to our ideas of how it should all go down. Fear and anxiety consume us. Everything. Takes. Too. Long. We start to doubt. We stop waiting on God….we can’t endure the delay…we can’t take the silence…we go back to trying to fix things on our own. We essentially fashion our own false idols to worship, put our hope in, and follow.

“Remember delays are not denials. Sometimes it may be just a timing issue. God’s timing is always perfect. Wait on God in times of delay. It may be that God has something better just a little later down the road.” Ron Parker.

Even in the delays, wait on the Lord. He is a good, good Father. It’s who He is. And you are loved by Him. It’s who you are. He’s worth the waiting.
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Questions: What are some of your big doubt triggers (trials, delays, bumps in the road…)? In times of doubt who/what do you turn to instead of God?

“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you…” Genesis 17:4-6

A great deal of time passes since God originally gave Abram the promise of many nations being blessed from his family (Abram was 75). Abram and Sarai still have no children after decades of trying, making the promise of anything coming from their family, much less a blessing, seem impossible. Barren and impatient, Abram’s wife Sarai takes things into her own hands.

Rather than wait and trust God’s plan, Sarai convinces Abram (now 86) to have a child with her servant for the two of them to raise as their own. Big mistake! Instead of satisfying the emptiness and longing in her heart, Sarai is filled with jealousy and anger over the child. Going outside of God’s plans to try to rush and orchestrate things her own way had painful consequences. In fact, this child, Ishmael, becomes the family line of Muhammad and Islam…a religion still fighting with the Jewish people and Christianity today.

Years pass and God appears again (Abraham is now 99). God changes Abram’s name to Abraham and reaffirms His promise to make Abraham a father of a multitude of nations. Even Sarah’s (Sarai gets a name change too) costly mistake won’t thwart God’s perfect plans or nullify His promises. God is a promise keeper. God tells Abraham he will have a son with Sarah within the year, upon which God’s covenant promise will flow through.

Waiting is hard. Especially when we know something is coming; something is promised to us. God’s plans and timing are so different from our own… so much better. Like Abraham, we have to trust and obey God. In our waiting, God is working. And God loves to work in situations where it can only be His power that accomplishes the impossible.

Questions: Are you in a season of waiting? How do you handle seasons of waiting?