A Closer Walk
"The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it," Arnold Glasow, American businessman, 1905-1998; author of "Glasow's Gloombusters." We Americans are not a patient people. We want it and we want it now, not five seconds from now. Just watch the people in any line you happen to be in. Whether the line at the checkout, or waiting to be seated in a crowded restaurant. You will see people fidgeting, checking their watches or their phones for the time, and other signs of impatience. But is that how it is in the Kingdom of God? Does our God grant every request, every favor, the moment it is uttered?
"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint," Isaiah 40:31 KJV. During the waiting we learn to trust our Lord more. We learn that our schedule is not His schedule. And, perhaps to our surprise, we learn that the waiting caused us no harm. This verse from Isaiah informs us that there is a reward for waiting. What is the reward? We will have our strength renewed. Our spirits will soar as on the wings of eagles. We shall run and not be weary. And we shall walk and not faint. A reward for waiting? Imagine that! Who would'a thunk it?
Our impatience may cause us to believe that God needs our help to accomplish His will. This could have been the case with Abraham and Sarah. God had told them that they would have a son even though they were both beyond the normal childbearing age. But God delayed, causing them to wait longer than they thought necessary. So Sarah comes up with the idea of having Abraham go in to her Egyptian maid and perhaps they would have a son that way (at this point Abraham is still being called Abram and Sarah is still being called Sarai because God had not yet changed their names to Abraham and Sarah.) Abraham followed his wife's wishes; and to this union was born Ishmael. But Ishmael was not the child of the promise. Abraham and Sarah took earthly steps to help God out. Does God need our help? For more on Abraham and Sarah see Genesis chapters 15-18 and then chapter 21 for the birth of Isaac, their child of the promise.
Aesop told a fable about a goose that laid a golden egg every day. The farmer who owned the goose thought this was a pretty good deal. Every day the goose laid one solid gold egg which the farmer and his wife could take into town and use to buy the things they needed. Supposing that inside the goose was a large deposit of gold he killed it to get all the gold all at once. Only then did he discover that on the inside the goose was no different than any other goose. This is where we get our expression, “killed the goose that laid the golden egg.”
Our impatience can get us into difficulties. It can deprive us of the reward that comes from waiting. It can also cause us to make unwise and hurried decisions according to the supposed need of the moment. But, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
“I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope,” Psalm 130:5 NASB.