“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar.”        Genesis 16:1 NIV

It is amazing the depths to which we, as those who have responded to the call of the Lord can sink. Here is Abram, a man who is following the Lord by faith. He has believed the Lord enough to leave his homeland and his family behind. He has trusted the Lord through battles and trials that would have made many turn around in defeat and return home. Yet, for all his faith and his good deeds, Abram is still a human. He is still made of sinful flesh and there is still within him a pull towards the world and all its allurements. We all know what this passage is about. Sarai and Abram trying to help the Lord give them a son by having Abram take Sarai’s maidservant Hagar as his wife. Of course, this was never the Lord’s will for their lives, but, as with us, this did not stop them from rushing headlong into it anyway. Their decision brought with-it far-reaching consequences for them and for our world today. It’s a real lesson in impatience. What is impatience? It is the emotion that gets tired of waiting; that gets fed up with something that delays us; that arouses us to act or react before we should. Waiting and delay are the key words: we just get tired of waiting, of being delayed, and want to move on and act or react. All too often we do, and we cause all kinds of problems for ourselves and for others, often painful and catastrophic problems. When has impatience lead you down a path that our Lord did not want you to take?

PRAYER THOUGHT

Lord, we repent of the sin of impatience which led us away from You.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Lord, we come in repentance of the sin of impatience, just like Abram and Sarai, we rushed ahead without consulting You, which lead down a path that was not what You desired for us. AMEN

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE READING ASSOCIATION (IBRA)

Matthew 16:1-20

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