Wait For It...

What’s your favorite fast-food restaurant? Where’s that place you want to go where you can get some comfort food without having to spend more than ten minutes waiting for the meal? Give me just a couple more minutes before you stop reading this article to zoom over for that entrée you’re thinking about. For almost two years, I worked at Chick-Fil-A, and at our location, we aimed to get 160 cars through our drive-thru in one hour at lunch time. That’s roughly three cars per minute or one car per twenty seconds. So, waiting wasn’t our goal or the guests’ when it came to feeding them. It was all about speed and accuracy.

Now let’s think about our attitude toward God. When we want Him to bless us, do we think, “God, let’s just ‘Chick-Fil-A’ this thing by giving me right now those blessings I want and answering the prayer requests I have.” Well, this attitude can provoke two thoughts. First, what is God’s timetable? Second, what is the blessing God wants most to give us?

To help answer these questions, let’s observe Abraham and the death of his wife, Sarah, as found in Genesis 23. God promised blessings and descendants to Abraham and that those descendants would live in Canaan (Genesis 12:1-3, 6-7). Great! So what are the blessings, who are the descendants, and when do Abraham and his offspring get to move into Canaan? We’ll get to “blessings” aspect later, but the promised offspring is Isaac, and he took a long time to arrive - 25 years to be exact (Abraham was 75 when the promise came - Genesis 12:4 - and 100 when Isaac arrived - Genesis 21:5).

So it took 25 years for God’s promise of children to come to Abraham. How about the promise of possessing Canaan? Yes, Abraham wandered around Canaan but didn’t own any of it…until Sarah died. Upon Sarah’s death, Abraham barters with a local Canaanite tribesman (Genesis 23:16-18) and purchases a cave to bury Sarah in (vv. 19-20). Abraham finally owns some of the land, but it took 62 years for that to arrive (Abraham was 75 when the promise came - Genesis 12:4 - and 137 when Sarah died - Abraham was ten years older than Sarah - Genesis 17:17 and she died at 127 - Genesis 23:1). What then do these years tell us about God’s timetable in our lives? They tell us that unless God gives a specific amount of years for something to come (which He rarely if ever does), He will fulfill His promises when He has wisely ordained them to occur. Wait??? So, if I don’t know when He will do what He has promised, then what’s the point of the timetable?

The point of the timetable is to see the bigger picture - God doesn’t want us to focus ultimately on these promises but on HIM. God didn’t promise Abraham with children and land just so Abraham would ultimately focus on those things. Rather, He established them as tools for becoming Abraham’s personal, relational God (Genesis 17:7). In fact, God reiterates and establishes this relationship later with Moses and all the people of Israel (Exodus 6:7-8).  And that’s what He desires to do with you, dear friend. Don’t ultimately live this life checking on the timetable of when God will answer certain prayers or provide this or that for you. Look at Him. Love Him. Desire Him (Matthew 22:35-40; John 17:3). That’s the purpose of His promises on His timetable.