Genesis 15: 1-21 (p. 13)

Waiting for God

I want to speak to you today about waiting. Last night at dinner, as we were eating Pizza, I tried an experiment and I'd like to repeat it here. I asked each person there to tell me something that they hate to wait for. I'd like to ask you the same thing. Name something you hate waiting for .

The fact is, a huge amount of our lives is spent in waiting. We wait in checkout lines. We wait in traffic jams. We wait for our computers. We wait to get married, then we wait for our spouses. We wait to have kids, and then we wait for our kids.

And alot of us don't deal very well with all of this waiting.

Which should give us sympathy for Abraham, because the challenge Abraham faces in Genesis ch. 15 is the challenge of waiting.

Abraham is 85 years old at this point in his life. He was 75 years old when God told him to leave for Canaan and promised to bless him. So 10 years have passed. In that 10 years, Abraham has gotten quite wealthy -- but he's still waiting for the promise. God promised land -- he's still an alien in Canaan. God promised descendants -- and he still has no children. And he isn't getting any younger. And in chapter 15 he is clearly feeling that time is running out. The waiting is beginning to get to him. Then he has a dream . . .

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You can't blame Abraham for being a bit impatient with God. He staked everything on God's promise to him -- and now he's been waiting for ten years without any sign at all that God is going to come through for him.

So when God says, "Hey, Abram, I have this great reward for you!" Abraham's response is something like this: "Well, thank you very much, but aren't you a bit late. I don't expect to be around much longer so it won't do me much good, and perhaps you've forgotten that you haven't given me any children?" It's clear that Abram is getting tired waiting for God to come through. He has reached a point where he is beginning to doubt whether all of his waiting will come to anything.

This is a critical test for Abram. Waiting faces him with a choice because there are really only two ways of waiting. Either you wait patiently or you wait impatiently, growing frustrated and angry. So the choice that Abram faces in waiting for God is whether to believe God and wait patiently the fulfillment of the promise, or to question whether God really knows what he's doing -- to become impatient.
Which will he choose? Patient trust? Or impatient unbelief?

For now, Abram chooses faith -- vs. 6

He chooses to believe God and to continue to wait patiently. And just to put this in perspective, we need to look ahead and recognize that Abram still has a long time to wait. It will be another 14 years to wait before the promise of a son is fulfilled. Altogether Abram that's 24 years before he sees God's promise fulfilled. That's a long wait, requiring alot of faith and alot of patience.

Abram didn't always wait patiently through these 24 years. We will see a lapse into impatience next week when we look at chapter 16

But the point I want to make here is that there is a direct connection in Abram's life between faith and patience on the one hand and between unbelief and impatience. Faith worked itself out in patience. For Abram faith meant believing that God would come through -- that the wait will be worth it, and waiting patiently. For Abram Patience was the product of faith. Impatience was the product of unbelief. How he dealt with waiting was a barometer of his faith.

The same is true for us.

How we deal with waiting is also a barometer of our faith. Whenever we are forced to wait we either wait patiently or impatiently. It doesn't matter whether it is a long wait like Abram's -- or 10 minutes waiting for someone who is late. No matter what the size of the wait, with every wait we are faced with the choice between patience and impatience.

What makes the difference?

Imagine you are driving along the highway at a conservative 55 miles per hour. You are on your way to work, and should be just on time. Then you see flashing blue lights in your mirror and a police car pulls you over. Wouldn't you be impatient? You'll be late, and for no good reason -- But what if a bridge has been washed away just ahead on the highway -- and you would have driven right off. If you believe the delay is good and for your protection, you will be quite happy to wait.

Or imagine that you are waiting for a colleague -- and he is hours late. Would it help you to wait patiently if you knew that he was negotiating a lucrative deal that will earn you a large bonus?

It is amazing how patient I can become when there is a good reason for the waiting. I would happily go to the longest checkout line if I thought that by doing so I would be given a cartload of free groceries.

The point is that whether we wait patiently or impatiently depends on whether we believe that the result of our waiting will be good for us.

Impatience is our natural response when we think that delays and interruptions are obstacles to our our happiness. We grow impatient when we don't believe that the circumstances we are facing will turn out for good.

But when we believe that the waiting is for our good -- that it will be worth it -- then it's much to wait patiently.

So here's a wild suggestion: what if we believed that every wait -- every delay, every unexpected interruption, every traffic jam, every accident, every computer crash was meant for your good. Preposterous right? But what if you really believed it? What if there really are NO unnecessary delays, NO meaningless interruptions, NO accidents.

I know it's a crazy thought -- but if I really BELIEVED that every wait had a good purpose, then would I ever struggle with impatience? I would be the most patient person in the world

Turn to Romans 8

Romans 8:28 (p. 1119) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:31-32 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all -- how will he not also, along with him graciously give us all things?

Other verses making the same point:

II Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him

Psalm 23:6 Surely Goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Jer. 32:40-41 (p. 786) I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they willnever turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.

Isaiah 64:4 No eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
I Corinthians 3:22-23 So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future -- all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.


What these verses promise us is that in ALL things -- including every accident and delay and interruption -- in ALL things God works for the good of his people. Even that which looks evil to us, God somehow in his wisdom has promised to use for the good of his people.

The key to patience is believing this -- believing that God is up to something good in everything that happens to us. The cure for impatience is believing Romans 8:28 -- and if we claim to believe it we have no excuse left for impatience.

You know what all of this comes down to? It means that all impatience is really impatience with God. If there's nothing else you take away from this morning, at least take away this: All impatience is really impatience with God. Why? Because when you get impatient you deny God's promise to do good for you. Every time you grow impatient at your employees, or your job, or your kids, you are really complaining against God -- saying, God I don't like the situation you've put me in, I don't like the people you've put me with, I am not sure you know what you are doing.

Last Saturday a group of us from Stony Brook went together to a workshop up at College Church. And all day I struggled with impatience. I was impatient when we were delayed in leaving -- I didn't want to be late. Then I was impatient in the seminar because it was not very good and I was impatient spending a whole Saturday at a not very good and not very interesting seminar.

I focussed my impatience on the people and circumstances around me -- but the real root of my impatience was that I did not trust God to bring good out the delays and disappointments of that day. I did not recognize it at the time, but the real focus of my impatience was God.

Looking back I can see that God did accomplish good -- for me and for other people. He used the disappointments of the day to teach me important things. But whether I can see that good or not -- God calls me to believe and to patiently pursue his promises.

I really only have one simple point here: For Abram and for us, the root of patience is faith; the root of impatience is unbelief.

If that's true then we need to recognize that impatience is a symptom of a serious illness, and we need to fight it with faith. Impatience is not just a minor personality quirk -- it's a symptom of the cancer of unbelief.

What does it look like in practice to fight impatience with faith?

When Carol and I are apart from one another, she often leaves me notes or gifts -- reminders to make the time go easier until we are back together again.

God did something similar for Abraham. During Abraham's waiting time -- when he faced the choice of waiting patiently, or becoming impatient -- God graciously gave Abram reminders to help with the wait. God does the same for us.

So by way of application, I want to point out some simple reminders -- You may want to think of them as faith-builders -- that we can use to help us to fight impatience.

1. The first gift God gives Abram is simply his word.

God kept reminding Abraham of his promises. He kept repeating them at different points throughout his life.





2. A second gift God gave Abram to help him to wait was the gift of his presence.






3. Finally, God gave Abram a permanent sign of his promise.
This comes not in this chapter, but in chapter 17. There God reaffirms his promise to Abram, and he gives Abram the sign of circumcision as a permanent reminder of his covenant relationship.

God also gives us a permanent sign of his relationship to us -- his spirit which he sends to indwell us and to give us hearts that are marked -- branded.

So if you struggle with impatience -- if you have a hard time believing God's promises, then make use of the reminders that God has given you. His word, His presence, His Spirit within you.