Hebrews6:12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. NIV
TO LEARN PATIENCE( B)
We can learn a lesson from the life of Abraham. At 75 years, God called Abraham and made good promises to him. He was without a child when God told him he would be the father of many nations. Not long after, God changed his name from Abram to Abraham meaning "father of multitude". Can you imagine what it would look like to the people around seeing a childless man call himself "father of multitude"? Sarai's name was changed to Sarah meaning " woman of high rank". How noble is a childless woman in the Jewish culture? In the African culture, it is believed that it is only a woman that gives birth that is entitled to her husband. There's a similarity between the Jewish culture and African culture in that regard.
Abraham may have thought that God's promises will come to pass immediately but he waited for another 25years. In between, he helped himself with Hagar but God saw it as a distortion of His plan for Abraham. Out of pressure from Sarah and his inability to take his stand in waiting patiently upon the Lord, he caved in. After that incident, in Genesis17:1, God said to him, "When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless." Why do you think God told him to walk faithfully and blamelessly? It is obvious that God saw certain things in his life that weren't fitting for his destiny. The age difference between Ishmael and Isaac is about 13 years. This implies that God kept Abraham&Sarah waiting for another 13 years after the birth of Ishmael so that He can work out His will in their lives. A longer route indeed.
Your waiting time is not a wasted time if only you learn in patience. l have learnt over time that walking with God is pleasantly painful. Yes, it is. The hardest part of receiving good promises from God is the aspect of waiting. Nobody loves to wait but in God, it is an art we must learn if we don't want to make a mess of our glorious destiny. God uses our waiting time to work out what has been worked in and walk out what walked in through the flesh. Whoever will last in destiny must fulfill all the course requirements in God's "waiting" training school. God doesn't microwave His children in preparation for destiny. No, He doesn't. James 1:4 says, "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
Father, I ask for grace not to mess up the process in Jesus name.