God wants to help us and give us the promises he declared over our lives generations ago. It is ultimately up to us to be in a position to receive them. Obedience to God is submission to his will and plan. Obedience opens our hearts to receive all that God has for our lives.
Proverbs: 20:21: An inheritance claimed too soon will not be blessed at the end.
Don’t go after the promise in your own strength and create something that God didn’t purpose for your life. Sometimes the plans we make for our life have nothing to do with God and his kingdom. Our plans source from our family, culture, and circumstances. American society has engrained this idea of after high school you go to college, get a job, get married, buy a house, have kids, and live happily ever after. These standards and ideologies of how life is supposed to be have contributed to many people going down the wrong path because it hasn’t happened the way they “thought” it was supposed to. In the past, when I didn’t hit certain milestones when I thought it was supposed to happen it grieved me. As a result, I ended up making decisions that blew up in my face in the end because they were plans based on my own will and not what God planned for my life.
Acting on the promise, speaking on the promise, or even receiving the promise too soon can cause problems. The good news is God can use all things for the good of those who are called according to his purpose. [Romans 8:28]
The Bible gives us so many life lessons that we can apply today in regards to moving before God’s timing.
We see this in the bible with Abraham and Sarah. God promises to give Abraham an heir to inherit his estate. Years went by after the promise without Sarah, his wife, giving birth so she came up with a plan for Abraham to sleep with their servant Hagar. Hagar began to despise Sarah after finding out she was pregnant by Abraham and after finding out how Hagar felt, Sarah blamed Abraham for the entire situation. Hagar gave birth to a son and he was named Ishmael. Later, it is revealed that Ishmael is not the heir that would receive the promised covenant God established with Abraham. Instead, God promised Abraham a son through his wife Sarah. God fulfills his promise and Sarah gives birth to a son who they name Issac. After Issac had grown a little and was weaned, Sarah had Ishmael and Hagar sent away. [Genesis 15,16,17,21]
The Bible also shows us how speaking on a promise too soon can cause problems. Joseph had a dream and when he told his brothers about it they hated him and became jealous. Out of their jealousy for Joseph, they devised a plan to sell him to Ishmaelites. Joseph was sold for 20 shekels of silver which is about 6.03 USD. The Ishmaelites took Joseph to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar. Potiphar’s wife made several advances toward Joseph and after rejecting her several times she lied to her husband Potiphar and had Joseph thrown in prison. Joseph spent years in prison before his release and was made second in command to Pharaoh. Joesph’s dream came true the day his brothers traveled to Egypt to purchase grain. When Joseph’s brothers arrived they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. [Genesis 37, 39,40,41,42]
The lesson of the Prodigal Son shows us how receiving a promise too soon causes us to forfeit it because we’re not prepared for it. Jesus tells this as a parable starting in Luke 15:11. There was a man with two sons. The younger son asked his father for a share of his estate. The father granted the younger son’s request. The son took his inheritance, moved to a different land, and spent everything he had. After spending it all, a famine came on the land and the son became in need. He hired himself out and worked in the field feeding pigs. During that time, he came to his senses and went back to his father. [Luke 15:11 – 32]
Moving before God’s timing causes problems.
If Abraham and Sarah would have held onto the promise and kept their faith in God they may not have experienced the emotional distress they experienced. When we don’t wait on what God has for us, it affects us and other people. Ishmael and Hagar were also affected by Sarah’s actions. Our impatience and lack of faith in God cause us to make our own plans that usually don’t work out in the end. Joseph jumped ahead of himself and could not discern how the people in his environment felt about him. When Joseph told his brothers about the plan God had for his life they became so jealous, that they plotted to kill him. Had the prodigal son stayed under his father’s leadership when the time came for the inheritance, he would have known what to do with everything he was given. He would’ve learned about how to manage his finances and how to make more so that he had enough to pass down to his own children.
Before we receive a promise from God, there is a process we have to go through.
The journey along the way to the promise is where he prunes and prepares us. Character and habits are being shaped so that when the promise is received we are prepared for it and won’t mess it up. During the process, we learn obedience, and patience, and develop our faith. Understanding these principles will help us not to feel pressured to move before God’s timing. Just because you don’t see what you know you will receive one day doesn’t mean it won’t come to pass. God is faithful and he will do it for you. The process prepares us for the promise.
