Abraham and Lessons In Trust

While driving home a few weeks ago, my mom and I were talking about waiting on God and trusting His timing for things in life. She reminded me of the story of Abraham and the problems that exist to this day because of his impatience (you’ll see what I’m referring to at the end of this post). Talking about his life inspired me to study it out, both the blessings and consequences that were obtained by the decisions he made.

Starting in Genesis chapter 12, God calls Abraham out of the land of Ur, the land he grew up in, the land of his father’s fathers; to embark on a journey to a place where he had never seen, following a God whom his family had never served. And you know what? Abraham followed the Lord. Packing up his family and leaving all that was familiar, he began his pilgrimage, having faith in God’s goodness. In many ways Abraham’s life parallels ours; it was full of ups and downs in regards to His trust in the Lord. In this instance his trust in God is evident and his obedience in following the Lord without knowing the outcome is to be emulated. Yet Abraham, not unlike the rest of us, reached a point where he lost sight of God’s sovereignty and began to grow impatient. We as humans are so locked into time that it can seem, to our finite minds, like God has forgotten us or is slow to keep His promises. 2 Corinthians 3:9 says “The Lord is not slow about His promises as some count slowness…” I think many times what we think of as God forgetting us, is really Him working in us. Often times He knows that what we might want at the moment, we’re not ready for yet and He uses those moments to teach us and prepare us for what He wants to give us. I love the way my friend summed it up when He said, “God might not work by your clock. He works in his time and even though it would seem He does nothing, he is either testing us or waiting for the perfect time to intervene so you will realizes it was not you who did it, it was your Heavenly Father who let you do it."
~ Carson Fogarty

Which brings me to my next chapter in Abraham’s life; looking in Genesis 13:16, we find the account of God’s next promise. “I will make your decedents as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your decedents can also be numbered.” Yet when Abraham is eighty-five, Sarah is still barren and the couple still childless. Like we often do, human intellect begins to fill the place where trust should rule and panic begins to set in. So out of frustration, Sarah gives her maid servant Hagar to Abram that she might bare a child for them. Abraham takes Hagar and through their relationship Ishmael is born. In chapter 17, starting in verse two, God reminds Abraham (now ninety-nine) of His promise. “I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.” Then in verse sixteen God restates, “I will bless her (Sarah), and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her and she shall be the mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Abraham, still battling disbelief, asks God starting in verse seventeen, “…will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? And Abraham said to God, Oh that Ishmael might live before you! But God said to Abraham, No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly.” Moving ahead to chapter twenty-one, we find that God, true to His word, opens Sarah womb. And at the age of ninety-one, Isaac is born.

Though Abraham’s lessons in trusting and obeying the Lord were not over, he was able to see the fulfillment of part of God’s promises with the birth of Isaac. There is yet another promise that we now see God has brought to fulfillment; that being, the decedents of both Isaac, child of promise; and Ishmael, born out of man’s impatience; have grown in to large nations. And to this day, the repercussions of Abraham’s choice to do thing’s his way lives on in the wars between the Arab nations (from Ishmael) and Israel (from Isaac).


One of the reasons this has been such a blessing for me to study is because I’m so impatience. If things aren’t happening the way I think they should, I’m so tempted to think I need to do something, in my own strength, to try to change them or make them happen. Especially as women, hoping to be helpmates someday, this is not a good thing to struggle with. The struggle to trust in the Lord versus having things our way is a battle I think is fought on a daily basis. The story of Abraham was a reminder to me that there are consequences when we decide we have a better plan than God. Just watch the news today and you’ll see proof of that. I’m not saying that it’s easy, the reason that I read through Genesis is because it’s not. We can trust though that when God does bring His plans to fruition, it’ll be worth all the waiting. I really believe that if I was always able to keep a true focus on God’s character and who He was, than trusting Him wouldn’t be such a struggle. If you get the chance, take some time to study the life of Abraham and others in God’s word like Him. What an awesome gift we were given to be able to see and learn of God’s character through the lives of those who walked before us. May you glean from His word all that He has to teach you. And may you “trust in the Lord with ALL your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”
Blessings!!