Patience

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.

"I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you." Genesis 12:1-3

When you read the scriptures above, you hear the promises God made to Abraham (he was still 'Abram' at the time). Essentially the promises are that he will father a great nation, his name will be famous, this nation will be blessed, and the whole world will be blessed through him. As far as I can tell, none of these promises had come to pass by the time Abraham died. Think about that for a minute. We get impatient when God doesn't answer right away. Fast-forward a few hundred years from Abraham's death and you find his offspring to be quite numerous. Even so, they are a slave people in Egypt. Can you imagine being a young Hebrew slave in Egypt hearing the stories about the promises God made to Abraham. As that young Hebrew slave, your dad, your grandpa, and your grandpa's grandpa all lived their lives as slaves. It must have been hard to have faith in these promises of being a great blessed nation through which the world would be blessed. Today, we can see how all God's promises to Abraham have been kept. To have an eternal perspective takes a great deal of patience. It's hard to wrap my brain around the fact that some of the seeds I plant right now may not bear fruit for years… perhaps even 400 years. But just thinking about that fact helps me persevere even when I start to think my efforts are all for nothing.

Have a great week and a great fast.
Your brother,
Bob