Daily Devotional

Impatience

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “The LORD has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.) So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt. Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The LORD will show who’s wrong—you or me!” Abram replied, “Look, she is your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away. (Genesis 16:1-6, NLT)

     Sarai knew of God’s promise that she and Abram would have a son, but after 10 years of waiting she apparently couldn’t wait any longer. So she took matters into her own hands. Sarah’s impatience caused her to get ahead of God’s timing, and this caused problems in her relationships.

     On a scale of 1-10, how patient are you? How have you seen impatience negatively affect your relationships? Why is it so hard for most of us to be patient while waiting on God to answer our prayers? Why do you think God makes us wait sometimes?

     What would God have you to do as a result of what you’ve read today?

     Impatience can cause wise people to do foolish things. (Janette Oke)