When Abram was 99 years old, the
Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk
before me and be blameless. (17:1)
In this chapter the Lord re-names Abram
and Sarai. They are now Abraham and Sarah and the Lord loads them
with more promises about how kings of peoples shall be from them and
all that. There's only one problem- they aren't even pregnant. God
changes their names and calls them who they are before they are who
He says they will be (i.e. Peter and Paul). God is
constantly changing people's names BEFORE they become who God intends
for them to be.
He does it with us, too. God changes us
way deep on the darkest inside BEFORE He makes happen what we so
desperately want to happen.. I have no idea why God made Abraham and
Sarah wait so long (24 years up to this point)) to fulfill His promise to
them. But I figure if you're going to be the parents of many nations
and kings are going to come from you- you're character better be
pretty well formed. We might think we are completely ready for
something in our life, but in reality we need 4/ 8/ 16 more years to
age/ change/ transform... be molded/ sanctified/ purified. I mean when
God works something out every little thing has to be in place, right?
If a person is setting up an intricate and delicate row of dominoes,
you can't hit the first domino without it starting a chain reaction
of falling stones.What if one of those stones isn't set up yet? Then the rest of the stones behind it won't fall. I imagine that if we're waiting for something... God has to set up all these stones... then He hits the first domino. I always want to hit that thing way before the rest of the stones are ready.
That's all I'm saying. That lots of
times God changes us first, then makes stuff happen. I'm super-glad
it's not always the other way around. In my impatience for whatever
it is, I am not always ready for what I think I need/ want /deserve
even though I want that thing really bad right now. But God has a
different time-line. He needs to see me a little bit different first.
Okay, Sir, sculpt away.
