My Isaac...Waiting.

The following is a contributed article from Kelly Detzel, reminding you patience is a virtue. Continue to wait on God's best. 

Please. Another wedding invitation? Gag
me. Another Facebook status announcing her engagement? Lady, stop tooting your own horn. I mean, it isn’t that big a deal. Everyone and I mean everyone and her best friend was either married or already had an engagement ring on that pretty little finger of hers. Except me.  And I know what you’re thinking. Please girl, shut up and stop while you’re ahead. Not another single me, single you sob story. Go away. I am perfectly fine with eating my feelings and drowning in Netflix episodes. Hold on, okay? Pull up a chair and stay a while.

Anyway, it was 2012, May 5th to be exact when a message buzzed on my phone.

“I’M ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It read in all caps.

I knew. I knew it was coming before she even sent the text. And I won’t lie. I was still a discontented single pringle of a gal who didn’t have a clue. There she was sitting in a South Carolina restaurant with the love of her life without a care in the world. I should have been happy for her. And sure, I was happy for her. Of course I was. Happy as I text back “Congrats.” while sitting with my best friend in her living room trying to push back the tears. Happy as I scrolled through her engagement ring pics on Facebook trying to push back frustration. Happy as I tried desperately punching that green eyed monster sucker smack dab in the face. Envy-10 points, Kelly-0.

But being happy and being genuinely joyful for someone are two different things completely. Because it was her time for love. It was her time to be joined together with the one God chose for her before she was even born. Who was I to be jealous just because she got to walk down the aisle before I did?

Selfish girl bitter attitude. Single girl lonely girl. Angry girl who desperately needed a heart and soul check. The grass is always greener on the other side. Isn’t that how life just seems to go sometimes? I’d be happier, more content if I just had. . . I’d be on fire for God, believe you me if I just attained. Lord, you know this is what I need. It’s the best thing for me really. Or is it?

Clenched fist, tears in my eyes. Stones in my pocket when God longed to give me gems. My whole life ahead of me and I was stuck in a standstill. “God’s forgotten about you.” Satan whispered. “He’s withholding what you want most because He doesn’t love you.”

And at the time, I believed those lies. Swallowed them hook line and sinker Maybe I had been wrong. Perhaps I had been deceived all along. I wasn’t getting what I thought I needed when I needed it. So I selfishly blamed God for a season. It was his fault for making me wait. It was his fault I was alone. Or was it?

Twenty three and clueless. I was nowhere near even close to being ready. Cooking? Forget about it. Household skills? Don’t make me laugh. See, what we fail to remember is that God is the orchestrator of all things in His timing alone. He’s not going to just hand over what we want or think we need just because we pout and scream and cry.  If it isn’t your time to fulfill your calling, be it a nurse or teacher or doctor it’s not going to happen. Period.

Dreams put on hold for a season aren’t necessarily meant to die.I wanted to become a writer.  Man oh man did I want to write. Ladies I waited over three and a half years and God finally answered that prayer this past Friday. Three and a half years of tears and doubt and wailing and petitions out to God. See, it wasn’t that God was saying no, He was saying “My ways are not your ways; my thoughts are not your thoughts. You need to wait. You need to trust. Even if I say no.”

Do you know how long Sarah and Abraham desired and waited for a son? Can you imagine the countless tears that were shed during the wait? Twenty five years of waiting. Twenty five years of prayers and cries out to Jehovah.

But God in his perfect timing does finally answer. Genesis 21:2-3 reads “For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.”
And then God throws a curveball.

Genesis 22:2 reads: “And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”

It gets me every single time I read this account. How much do you love me Abraham?
Hey, how much do you love me, Kelly? How much? Are you, are we willing to give up what we treasure and or desire the most and put it on the altar as a sacrifice to God?

Genesis 22:10 reads: “And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.”

His precious son, his only son which he had prayed for so long. The point is he loved God more. He had faith that God would intervene right on time. He trusted and God answered.  May I encourage you tonight to follow hard after God and allow Him to become your first love? Don’t be afraid to trust God, even if He says no. Don’t be afraid to trust God even when He says yes! It’s finally time!
He knows best.

 About the Author: Kelly has been a writer since the age of twelve, and is on a mission to reach souls for Jesus through the art of written word. A blogger since 2011, she adores charming her readers with a unique outlook on anything and everything from works of pure fiction to simple truths of Jesus Christ, life, and love.