God is Your Exceedingly Great Reward in Your Waiting Season
As we settle into 2024, I have been reflecting on God’s promises over my life for this new year and beyond and for a moment, I wondered whether He was indeed going to fulfill them (Lord help my unbelief) but It was also in this moment that the Lord led me to Genesis 15: 1 . In this verse the Lord speaks to Abram in a vision and tells him not to be afraid because He is his shield and his exceedingly great reward. When I got to the end of this verse even before I could dive into the rest of the chapter, I could tell that God was assuring me that even now, when I am in my waiting season, and I feel empty and unfulfilled, I am not alone. God is telling me that I am never alone, that lack has never been my portion because He is always there, an ever present gift in my life in every season.
Genesis 15:1
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.’’
As christians, going about our day to day life in an ever evolving busy world that demands all of us and requires us to shelve God as we chase after material things. We get tired of waiting for the things we prayed for and forget that even in our waiting we have God (as an exceedingly great reward). We begin to compromise to attain material things such as well paying jobs, homes in flashy neighborhoods and friendships with people of influence. My question to us as we get deeper into 2024, is how can we faithfully wait on God’s promises over our lives? Deep down we all want instant results but what we don’t realize is that as God children before we call unto Him He has already answered us. What takes time is the manifestation of our asks to the Lord. In some instances we pray and God redirects us to other things we did not pray for because He knows what is best for us .
Further down in Chapter 15 we see Abram share his fears with the Lord. Abram is childless and he is afraid that Eliezer of Damascus would be the heir of his house. This moment, for me, is where I see God’s redirection of Abram’s life, the God that does exceedingly and abundantly beyond what we think or imagine shows up for Abram. Abram had been in a waiting season for a child for so long and in his humanness he had resulted to settling for Eliezer as an heir but God had bigger plans for him. God planned to not only give him a son of his own but the Lord made him a promise that his descendants would be as many as the stars.
Genesis 15: 4–5
“ And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.’’ Then He brought him outside and said , “Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them.’’ And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.’’
The lesson from Abram in Genesis chapter 15 is that we should not grow weary in our waiting season. That having faith in God’s promises and believing that God has our best interest at heart (because He does) will ground us and help us to wait faithfully in a way that is pleasing to God. And when it is time, God will indeed answer our prayers and it is at this time that our believe in the Lord will be accounted for righteousness.
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Thank you for reading. I wish all of us a happy waiting season in 2024. We will wait with the knowing that God is a God that answers our prayers.
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Please feel free to leave a comment and share with me how your waiting season is or has been.
