Abraham's Cry

Recently I've started a year-long devotional called Live Second from the I Am Second series (find out more about IAS here). I've never been good at keeping up with devotionals, so far it's taken me 3 weeks to get through 14 days, but I am determined to stick with it.

{Source}

        Slowly this book has taken me through the book of Genesis; dwelling mostly on the tale of Abraham. There was one part of this devotional that really caught my heart - it was about Abraham and Sarah's trial with infertility; their yearning for a child.

        Abraham wanted a child so badly that at one point he actually cried out in agony. “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son?" (Genesis 15:2). God's response to Abraham was to take him outside and to have him look up at the stars, telling him that he will be the father of many nations. God promised, but just because He promised Abraham, doesn't mean He made it happen right away. In fact, when his son Isaac was born, Abraham was over 100 years old; but God always keeps His promises.

       Abraham doubted God's promise, and when it didn't happen right away (his way), he made it happen himself; by having a child with a servant girl. Abraham struggled. And like many of us, we question God's plan and His timing. But do we cry out to the Lord? Do we share our struggles with Him?

"Too often we hide our needs or emotions from God" 

(Live Second, pg.10)

       Our God wants us to cry out to Him; to share our distresses, our discomforts, our struggles and our fears. I think it's important to share these things with our Father, but then we need to be willing to follow through with His timing, even if it goes against our own.

"In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help"

(Psalm 18:6)

I just want to leave you with a quote by Jon Cook (that he posted on the IAS blog).

 "The point of living second isn’t to get what I want; the point is that sometimes I’m called to sacrifice my own greatest desires in hope that a good and loving God has something better in store for me. His timing may not always match up with mine, I may even hate the answers that come, but I can trust in a God who knows me best. What I want may not be what I need but I can be honest with God about how I feel." 

(Jon Cook, source)

What do you think?