Multiply Your Patience

Blessings everyone and welcome to day 12 of our Lent devotional. We are in day 12 and we are multiplying your patience. Now I am eager to get straight into the word because patience is one of my favorite things, um, since I was a child. As far as if you ask me what, what fruit do you want, it would be patience. Okay, so, and we are being very fruitful and multiplying in this Lent devotional. So let's dive deep into the word, and the word is coming from Genesis 16:10 in the King James Version. Then the angel of the Lord said to her, I will multiply your descendants exceedingly so that they shall not be counted for multitude. Now I'm sure the last thing Hagar expected expected to hear from the angel when he stopped her attempt to flee from Sarah was, go back to your mistress and submit to her. So we're talking about multiplying your patience, and we're going to be talking about Hagar and Sarah and Abram and their story as far as how God multiplied in their patience And in their waiting. So there are things that we do in life that we think will automatically disqualify us from God's favor, and they don't. So sometimes we may think that waiting, um, may disqualify us from God's favor, and it technically don't. They may displease him in our actions, okay? And we will face consequences as a result of our actions. Now, waiting doesn't necessarily displease God. It's what you do in the waiting. But God will not abandon us, okay? So if you're waiting and you think that God has abandoned you and you act— we're going to get more into it— but then you act in the waiting, um, than trusting God that he's there, then that's when your consequences will come as a result of your actions. Now Abraham and Sarah, they decided to help God fulfill plan for their lives. Like, he knows the plans that he has for us. So just continue to hope in the waiting. Hope in the waiting. Hope in the waiting. Hope in the waiting. I'm saying that again. But I've tried, you know, I tried that too. Times where, just like Abraham and Sarai decided to help God fulfill his plan for their lives, I've tried that too. And just like it was a bust, For the father of our faith and his wife, it was a bust for me too. So trust me, God does not and will not work on your schedule, so you may as well surrender to his timetable. Some of us were impatient as children, and some of us have grown into impatient adults. In Genesis 15, God promised Abraham a heir, a son who would be his own flesh and blood, but God was taking too long in Abrams, and what Abram would say was God was taking too long. How many times have we said God has taken too long? But that's that comes to identify our in you know our waiting. This is a waiting period. If God hasn't done it yet, this is his time to wait on the Lord. Wait on God. Wait because He has a plan for you. There's something that He may need tell you. So this is the time to wait and listen. So that he can fulfill, you know, his promise. So Sarai had produced a plan to make sure Abram had that son. So sometimes we go ahead and make plans to produce what we feel like we want at that moment. So, you know, like I said, we've all been guilty of that. And that's how Hagar, Sarai's servant, got involved. Our impatience can cause us to hurt others and ourselves. Based off of our actions and what we do. Um, of course, a lack of knowing this information. Of course, if you don't know, like, if you don't know God has a plan for you, then you're going to act out of your own will and not his will. But, um, I'm here to let you know that God has a, a plan for you. He has a will for you. And you can trust in God. Our impatience can cause so many things, but at the same time, it can cause others to be able to wait patiently. And I'm kind of going to go through that, you know, because that's when we say thank God for grace and mercy. Like, a lot of people don't know you have grace, you have mercy, and how to utilize those things in the time of waiting. So when you feel like you may be impatient, this is information, this is knowledge. Um, This is secret to the kingdom of heaven and in God and his will is that there is grace, there is mercy. When you feel impatient and you feel like you have to wait, there is grace, there is mercy. Okay, so the birth of Hagar's son Ishmael was followed by the birth of Sarai's son Isaac, and conflict arose between the two women. Now the consequences of impatience caused Hagar to run away from Sarah's home. And but this is where God's grace and mercy is so good. But the angel met her in the desert. And so again, thank God for grace and mercy. The love— I mean, the, the Lord heard Hagar's cries. He comforted her. He's the Paraclete. He told her that her descendants would multiply, and he sent her back home. Sometimes God does not give us all the information we think we need to follow his plan, but that does not mean he has changed his mind. Just in case you haven't figured it out yet, you need patience when you serve a God to whom a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. Then you definitely need patience, because how many can say, I will, I will wait a thousand years to wait on the Lord? You need the patience. His promises always comes true. And you can read in 2 Peter, um, chapter 3, verse 8, a little bit more about patience and time and the gift of time. But I definitely want to take it into God in prayer Because this is the time where we can just talk to God and say, Father, in this season, I pray for the gifts of trust. I pray for the gifts of patience. I pray that when I become impatient, you will show me the same grace that you displayed to Hagar, to Abram, and to Sarah. Amen. In Jesus' name, amen. And it's easy to go to the Father and say, right now I may not understand, I may not know, but I will wait on you. And I just pray and ask for more grace, more mercy in this time. Where I'm feeling impatient, but I can cast all my cares, all my worries over to you. In Jesus' name, amen. This was a great day 12 Lent devotional. I just thank God for being able to connect and go into the word with everyone, and I pray that Vigilant Devotional is feeding you spiritually, feeding you emotionally, but also relationally as we put God as the first priority in our lives. Thank you and have a blessed day.