Waiting can make holding onto hope very challenging and difficult. The longer we must wait, the more difficult it becomes. We are an impatient people. Holding onto our hope may even become too challenging for us.
But holding onto our hope is more rewarding than any other thing we can do. It is our hope that gets us through the tough times. It is our hope that carries us on when we don’t want to go any further.
As we see in today’s passage, Abraham held onto his hope and was rewarded. Abraham’s hope was put in God’s promise and God delivered on His promise. Though both Abraham and Sarah were well beyond childbearing age, God gave them the son He promised them. Can you imagine how often Abraham and Sarah were ready to give up?
Sarah became impatient and offered her servant to give Abraham a son. But God ultimately gave Abraham and Sarah a son of their own, though they waited for more than 15 years for God to deliver on His promise. What promise are you waiting on? How long have you been waiting?
At the same time God made His promise to Abraham, He told him his offspring would be in a foreign land for four-hundred years. Can you imagine what Abraham thought? He was about to start waiting for a son. He might have been wondering how long he would have to wait.
We are waiting for Christ to return. We don’t know how long we will continue to wait. We do know that by holding onto our hope, we will spend eternity with Him. We can reasonably assume it won’t always be easy. Yet we can also believe, with our entire heart, that it will be more than worth it. We can believe that God will deliver on His promise to us just as He delivered on His promise to Abraham.
I pray we all hold onto our hope in God’s promise. I pray we wait patiently for Christ’s return. I pray we continue to believe God will deliver us into His presence for eternity. Hold onto your hope. Believe in God’s promises. Continue to wait. Wait patiently.
Romans 4:18-21 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.
Marty Pressey 