Waiting in Goodness

  Tonight I am pondering how good God is. Our lesson at BSF this week was about Abram and the covenant God made with him. Abram said, "what can you give me since I have no children?" It's ok to openly pour out our hearts to God. He can take it. He is strong. We can be frustrated and sad and tell Him all about it. What's cool - really cool - is that He then will give us an answer when we earnestly seek Him. Does He have to? Nope. His Word is all we need; He tells us who He is and all He's done and is going to do, and that should honestly be enough to strengthen our faith and our resolve in Him. But He knows how frail our human minds are. Frail, and yet He gave us the ability to question. He gave us the emotions - all of them. Then He counts us as righteous when we believe His promises. God made the promise to Abram that he would have a son from his own body to inherit the land God had promised. Abram believed God when he looked up at those stars, and it was credited to him as righteous. He was made right with God through faith, not through anything he did. And even though he believed, even though God had shown him something mind-blowingly amazing He still gave more. I can picture Abram that night. I can imagine his eyes fresh with tears, not tears of sadness, but tears of joy at the incredibleness of God's promise. The hopeful tears that come when He shows us something really neat. I can imagine his voice, maybe a whisper as his mind still did not comprehend: "O Sovereign Lord, how can I know?" He wanted confirmation. As our leader said, concrete confirmation. How many times have I been there? God tells me something, I say, "Wow! OK!" Then two minutes later, I want to know all the details. God then gave Abram the covenant while, as my leader pointed out, Abram was asleep. God was the only condition of the covenant. And God is God, so His covenant was unconditional. Abram then had to wait upon the Lord. He didn't get all the details, and he still had to wait, but God gave him more than imaginable. Later in the story, we know God kept His Word. I'm praying about some stuff right now, and when I feel like God isn't listening...when I feel that it is so hard to wait and I cannot live one more minute without the details and the when/how/what are You going to do?!, He sent me this lesson. And to top it off, He sent me this lecture. And to give me even more beautiful confirmation that He is the God who tenderly hears my prayers, He sent me a lady who told me, "God told me to tell you: 'Don't be discouraged, Amber. I have heard your prayers.'" She knows nothing about my prayer. She doesn't know how long I've been praying and wanting an answer. Today I cried tears of joy and hope at the incredibleness of God. God is good. And it all rests on Him. He is the God of the impossible. He is the God who grants desires which He has placed in one's heart. He hears. While we wait, He's there.