SOME TIME LATER
Day after day the drudgery of books had began to depress me. Don't misunderstand. I love reading books. I was working in a warehouse at the time. Two of us would work in a large cubicle to pack books into boxes according to a computer order and convey them to be stacked onto palettes and trucked out to the retail shops in four Australian states. But I was called by God so clearly to be a Pastor. Packing books? Why would God have me wait all this time just to be packing books.
"Some time later" (Genesis 22:1 NLT) after Sarah, at about 90 years of age, has given birth to Isaac, and before she dies at 127 years of age (Genesis 23:1), the events of Genesis 22 occur. We are not told what went on in those 37 years except that Isaac was loved by Abraham.
That's what I am talking about. Between the fulfillment of God's promise and the "some time later". I can look back and see how God has shown up in my life in the most amazing ways and I have responded in faith. My life has been changed. Then "some time later" God once again speaks into my situation, only this time it is to TEST MY FAITH.
It is what happens in these intervening years before the "some time later..." that determines my destiny. It is what happens when I am serving Him faithfully, day by day, living out the fruit of His promises, growing in the things I know about Him and applying His Word to the circumstances of my life. It is those things appropriated and applied in the EVERYDAY that determine how I will respond to God when the crunch comes "some time later".