If I’m honest, I don’t like waiting, that is in my flesh. I want instant results, whether that’s in the weight room, learning a new skill, working on a renovation project, getting a meal or driving to my final destination. I want to get there and I want to get there fast! I also want God to work on my timetable. As I’ve journeyed with God over the course of my life, I’ve learned that God’s timing is rarely, if ever, in accordance with mine. He has purpose in dragging out the fulfillment of what He promises you and me. There is purpose in the wait!

Abraham was a man of God that wasn’t able to have a son. He and his wife couldn’t conceive for whatever reason. This is something that bothered him because it meant his inheritance would be given to one of his servants that worked for him.

One day at the age of 75, God spoke a promise to Abraham (Abram),

“’No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.’ Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, ‘Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have’” (Genesis 15:4-5 NLT).

Abraham believed the promise God made to him. It was an exciting time. The God of the Universe just told him that he would have a child in his old age and that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky! Who wouldn’t get excited over that, right?!

But then a lot of life happened. Abraham and Sarah (Sarai) had to wait, and wait, and wait and wait some more. Ten years into this journey and there was still no child! This caused Sarah to start getting antsy, so she devised her own plan to bring the promise to pass. She said to Abraham,

“’The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.’ And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife” (Genesis 16:2-3 NLT).

Ishmael was born through Hagar, Sarah’s servant, per Sarah’s own bright idea and Abraham’s full blessing. This created descension between Sarah and Hagar and there was conflict from that day forward in their relationship. There was a lot of dysfunction created. Yet, even in the midst of the mess, God worked it all together for their good. God told Abraham at 99 years old that He would bless Ishmael and make him into a great nation, even though he wasn’t the child of promise (Genesis 17:20). In addition, God didn’t negate His original promise to Abraham and Sarah just because they got out of step with God and tried to help Him out. Now that’s mercy.

How many times have we made poor choices in our own lives and God showed us mercy and grace? He somehow worked out our less than stellar decisions for our good. That’s the kindness of God. He knows how to take our brokenness, our dysfunction, our mishaps and make something beautiful out of them for His divine purpose, just like He did with Abraham and Sarah.

Continuing with the story, God goes on and reaffirms His promise to Abraham and says about Sarah,

“I will bless her and give you a son from her! Yes, I will bless her richly, and she will become the mother of many nations. Kings of nations will be among her descendants” (Genesis 17:16 NLT).

Through the waiting process, God allowed Abraham and Sarah to come to an end of themselves trying to make the promise come to pass in their own strength and by their own great ideas. Only God can finish what He began. And it will require faith on our part to trust God when we don’t understand what He is up to. The waiting process exhausts our own human effort and brings us to a place of absolute trust and dependency on Him.

All in all, the promise God made to Abraham of giving him a son took 25 years to come to pass. Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 99. They both were well beyond childbearing years at this point. But God! He can do what man can’t. He can do what medicine can’t. He can do anything. He is God!

When God makes a promise to you or to me, He can be trusted to bring it to pass in His perfect timing. There is purpose in the wait. God grows us and matures us so that we will be equipped for the assignment He put us on the earth for. The Bible says in James 1:2-4 AMP,

“Consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials. Be assured that the testing of your faith through experience produces endurance leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace. And let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed in your faith, lacking in nothing.”

God uses trials, testing and pressure to develop character in us so that we will be fully mature. There are no shortcuts in God’s kingdom economy!

What is it that God has promised you? Is it to get married, start a business or write a book? Is it to be a mother or father, to go back to school, launch a ministry, move to a different part of the country or to a new country altogether? God is faithful to bring the dream He gave you to pass. If it hasn’t happened yet, then know this, it’s not the right time. The waiting is maturing you and working out an unshakable faith and trust in God. God is faithful to His Word, but the pathway there may be different than you expect. That’s why we need to trust God by faith. He sees the way forward.

And when you fall short of the mark along the journey, I want to encourage you that God has a way of working your mess out for your good. As we humble ourselves and acknowledge our need for Him, He goes to work, just like He did for Abraham and Sarah. Don’t give up. Get back up, dust yourself off and keep walking in the direction God is asking you to go. There is purpose in the wait.