Strangers In Your Own Land
Genesis 15:13,14 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that your descendents will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.
Why did God tell this to Abram? Was it punishment for questioning how God could make him into a nation, giving such a large number of descendents or a land of his own? I don’t think that it was meant to punish or to discourage Abram, but rather to tell him how he was going to make his descendents into a large nation. It was meant to bring hope and insight, and as we look to Exodus 12:31-42 we see it came to pass.
God’s ways and timing are not always like ours might be. So many times in my life I would have had God hurry things up, but only to find that I wasn’t ready or the situation wasn’t ready. This can bring frustration even for the mature in Christ, but it shouldn’t! The more mature we get and the more Christ-like we become the more we should seek the discernment of the Holy Spirit knowing he knows every aspect of what is taking place and what is needed. Often new Christians will handle God’s will and timing better than mature Christians. New Christians see themselves as so unworthy as not to expect God to be doing anything but forgiving them. Mature Christians will tend to blame the powers of darkness and try to fight the situation not realizing it is really God that is trying to do what is best.
I am sure Abram probably thought he could find much better ways of making his descendents into a nation, but God had in mind much more than just getting a mass of people together. God would be preparing them mentally, emotionally and spiritually where they needed to be for them to be a people of God and not just a nation. Abram’s descendents were to be nation of priests that were to reveal the Lord to the world and that he was going to provide a Savior that would bless the entire world. Sad to say they didn’t this right either. They felt that the Lord was their God alone and their savior would make them the dominate force in the world. They were not the only ones to miss God’s will at times, or his timing, I have and millions of others have too. I am sure that the person that helped Billy Graham to become a Christian had no idea that Billy would lead millions to Jesus. They may have even seen themselves as a failure for Jesus.
Don’t be discouraged about what God is doing or not doing in your eyes! He has great plans for you. While you may not know of them today, but he will reveal them to you and help you with them at the appropriate time. All we have to do is make ourselves available to him and watch for him to open the doors for us.
Prayer: Thank you Lord for your patience with me. Please help me to be patient with my future while waiting in anxious expectation for you to do wonderful things in my life for you.
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