{"id":4853,"date":"2020-06-16T15:47:58","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T15:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpmu.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/?p=4853"},"modified":"2021-12-08T09:19:43","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T09:19:43","slug":"god-uses-unexpected-people-reading-plan-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/2020\/06\/16\/god-uses-unexpected-people-reading-plan-day-1\/","title":{"rendered":"God Uses Unexpected People Reading Plan Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. ‘How could I become a father at the age of 100’ he thought. ‘And how can Sarah have a baby when she is ninety years old?’\u00a0So Abraham said to God, ‘May Ishmael live under your special blessing!’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But God replied, ‘No\u2014Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac,\u00a0and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant.'” Genesis 17:17-19, NLT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sarah Personality Profile from the Life Application Study Bible, Third Edition<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There probably isn’t anything harder to do than wait, whether we are expecting something good, something bad, or an unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One way we often cope with a long wait (or even a short one) is to try to help God get his plan into action. Sarah tried this approach. She was too old to expect to have a child of her own, so she thought God must have something else in mind. From Sarah\u2019s limited point of view, this could only be to give Abraham a son through another woman\u2014a common practice in her day. The plan seemed harmless enough. Abraham would sleep with Sarah\u2019s servant, who would then give birth to a child. Sarah would take the child as her own. The plan worked beautifully\u2014at first. But as you read about the events that followed, you will be struck by how often Sarah must have regretted the day she decided to push God\u2019s timetable ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another way we cope with a long wait is to gradually conclude that what we\u2019re waiting for is never going to happen. Sarah waited until she was 90 for a baby! When God told her she would finally have one of her own, she laughed in disbelief, not so much from a lack of faith in what God could do, but from doubt about what he could do through her. And when she was confronted about her laughter, she lied\u2014as she had seen her husband do from time to time. She probably didn\u2019t want her true feelings to be known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What parts of your life seem to be on hold right now? Do you understand that this may be part of God\u2019s plan for you? God may give us something else to do while we wait. But sometimes what we need to do is trust God, pray for patience, and wait for his perfect timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learn more about the Life Application Study Bible<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. ‘How could I become a father at the age of 100’ he thought. ‘And how can Sarah have a baby when she is ninety years old?’\u00a0So Abraham said to God, ‘May Ishmael live under your special blessing!’ But God replied, ‘No\u2014Sarah, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,39,44,45,51,52],"tags":[105,187,206],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5636,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853\/revisions\/5636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}