Painful Waiting

Waiting

Genesis 16:1”Now Sarai, Abram's wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.”

When waiting gets on your nerves! As we read this chapter, it had been more than ten years since the promise was made regarding Abram’s descendants. Hey friend, waiting is no small job, it takes courage, patience, faith, energy, long suffering, humility and dependence of God; a hypertension person can never comprehend what I said just now.

HAGAR: This chapter is an eye opener to all who think they are too strong to fall or err, devil can creep into the tiniest of hole and cause drastic damages. Apostle Paul said: So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! (1 Corinthians 10:12) Watch this! Abraham and Sarah, were such wonderful, God fearing couple, picked and chosen by God to do His will; however, can something as insignificant and petty like a servant cause such great damage? Yes, it can if you are not alert and vigilant! Did not the Bible say, Proverbs 16: 16 How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver! Hagar was probably one of those maid-servants whom the king of Egypt, among other gifts, gave to Abraham. (Genesis 14:16).

GIFTS FROM THE WRONG PLACE: You don’t have to accept all the gifts and freebies that come to you, think before you accept. Look for hidden agendas and ulterior motives hidden behind the gift! Hey friend, nobody gives you nothing without a return expectation, stop being naïve and get alert. We were conducing monthly meeting in a particular city, people were getting convicted and many backslidden Christians were coming back to the Lord, one particular educated young man working in a reputed organization was not only touched immensely but he was also volunteering to help us with the meetings. Well, the devil plotted a plan, the young man came to me one evening and told me, ‘ sister, I was gifted an expensive keyboard by a vendor who is connected with our office business and he also said, every year I give such gifts to important managers.’ The man seemed to look at the gift as something from heaven, because he was planning to use it in the prayer meeting, I looked at him and said, ‘this is polished bribe give it back to him.’ Don’t allow curse into your house, just watch what damage ‘Hagar’ had done to the family of Abraham.

I have watched my students of our free school (Abide School) run by us in Hyderabad, subtly give sweets and other gifts to the teachers; however, there was return expectation: “don’t shout at me, give me good marks, adjust with me…..” I sent an announcement, ‘no more gifts to be circulated and teachers are not to receive gifts from students or parents.’ Be Cautious!

Pitch dark period: As we read this chapter, it has been 10 years since Abraham and Sarai had been waiting for the promise of God to be fulfilled in their life, no small wait though. However, God did have a very intimate talk with Abraham just the previous chapter where He said: Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."(Genesis 15:5) Sometimes people have the habit of doing the most atrocious thing just after a super encounter with God, are you there, they throw everything out of the window and go right to the gutter water.

During our night prayer, the girl who received the greatest touch of God, who wept and surrendered her life that night, got a call from her boy friend, early morning the next day. I watched her with a heavy heart, talk to him for a long time in a corner, eventually she married him (not a Christian though) after a few months and then I also heard that she got separated after a while. Sad!

Satan’s tactics: Sarai was the one who initiated this devious plan of taking Hagar, I guess she used emotional tactics of tears to coax Abraham into this. Beware, satan’s uses close relatives and also looks for other ways to get you into a mess which further leads you into complicated mess.

Mind attacked: It is crystal clear that Sarai’s mind had been attacked by the devil, he must have whispered, ‘the waiting is waste, nothing has happened so far and it don’t wait anymore, look at the opportunity right before you (Hagar) and now grab that. That’s why the Bible says we need to have a steadfast mind to focus only on God: Isaiah 26: 3 "The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You.” We need to look up at God like David, he lived in danger, including the years he was forced to hide from Saul. And yet he penned this: “I lift my eyes up to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord the maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1-2).