by John Mehl on September 15, 2025
No one likes waiting. Not really.
I have never seen someone moving back in the line at the grocery store, just with joy on their face in the midst of longer and longer delays. Waiting makes us do crazy things (just look at how people act in traffic).
Now, how about indefinite waiting? I am talking about extended waiting without end in sight. How about waiting over a period of decades?
Enter into Abraham’s story. Genesis 12 accounts for the promise of the Lord coming to Abraham in his old age (75) that his name will be great, all nations on earth will be blessed through him and his lineage, and that his offspring will receive the ‘promised land’.
So you’re Abraham, God has directly promised you these realities, and then you have to wait.
And wait.
And wait.
There is no doubt what the Lord said. Seasons have come and gone. Others around you are bearing children, and life continues to move on around you. But after a decade, you are still waiting to see the reality of what God told you, promised you would happen.
Maybe it is time to rethink the plan? Genesis 16 reveals the developments of what I would consider to be very reasonable confusion experienced by Abraham and his wife, Sarai. Sarai even credits the Lord as the one who has "prevented me from bearing children" (16:2), and together they decide to take matters into their own hands… to historically tragic results.
People do crazy things in the waiting – and maybe in the midst of it, it doesn’t seem that crazy. When we read through Abraham’s account in a way that takes just minutes to cover what were actually decades, it seems clear that Abraham and Sarai just needed to trust the promise of God and wait on the Lord. But "hang in there" and "be patient" platitudes wear thin when it seems like nothing is changing, and thinking maybe was misunderstood all those years ago when we first heard the promise from the Lord.
I think there are a lot of us that can relate to the confusion, disorientation, and maybe even "impatient actions" of Abraham and Sarai. And one thing that has stuck out to me re-reading this account recently is the perspective that even through elongated wait, the direct promise of the Lord never changed and was never threatened. Even though the experience of waiting and the elongated passage of time makes it SEEM like the promise of the Lord isn’t lining up, the last clear thing that the Lord had said to Abraham and Sarai has not been altered.
What is the last clear thing that you heard or received from the Lord? Have you ever experienced "receiving" words or impressions from the Lord? (Not everyone has, so I am not presuming that is the case for you.) Maybe you have to go back through seasons and seasons to recall a time where God clearly and personally directed your steps, or called you into or out of something, or put a Spirit-empowered impression in the midst of your life through Scripture or Christian fellowship.
What is the last clear thing that you heard or received from the Lord?
Perhaps today’s encouragement is simply to sit in reflection over that. Has anything changed since then? Oh maybe a lot has changed – seasons and years have come and gone since you first heard or received that promise. But has the Lord himself changed or amended his promise? Even though there is a clear experience of distance between the promise received and the present realities, that does not mean there is a distance between you and the presence of the Lord himself. If something needed to change or be clarified in his promise towards you, he would be faithful to share that. But when the last clear thing that you heard or received from the Lord is a promise from long ago, maybe you need to remember and re-commit yourself to the faithfulness of the Lord in his promises to sustain you in waiting to realize it.
I do not want to prematurely interrupt the Lord’s plan because of my impatience, no matter how understandable and longsuffering it might seem. With the timeless truths of God’s movement through Abraham and Sarai, you and I can gain perspective that confusing circumstances and extended periods waiting are almost certainly to change, but the clear promises of the Lord never do.
“I, the Lord, do not change” – Malachi 3:6
“God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind” – Numbers 23:19
“The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does” – Psalm 145:13
All of salvation history accounted throughout or Bible is one big story of people waiting upon the Lord. Waiting upon the Lord for his covenant promises. Waiting for the Kingdom. Waiting for a Messiah. Waiting for the indwelling of the Spirit. Waiting for the return of the King to usher in the Renewed Heavens and Renewed Earth.
Things SEEM like they are changing, maybe things aren’t lining up, and seasons are coming and going as we wait. But what is the last clear thing that we heard or received from the Lord? Is there any real possibility that he will not still and forever be faithful to his promise?
