Our "need" for idols

Don't you just love starting off the day soaking up some truth from God's word?  This morning I was reading about Sarah and Hagar and Abraham in Genesis 16 and in Genesis 21.  The current study that I'm using is entitled "No Other Gods" by Kelly Minter and it's about confronting our modern-day idols and acknowledging God as the one true god.  It's been fantastic so far.  The chapter I'm currently reading  is all about why we have idols.  Today I read that many of us run to idols (defined in this book as "anything functioning as "God" in our lives") because we believe that they will bring us what we need.  Sarah "needed" a child, which back then was pretty important.  Sarah's desire to build her family was so great that she took things into her own hands when she perceived that God wasn't coming through for her.  So, she gave her servant Hagar to her husband so that she would bear a child for him.  Sarah decided to depend on Hagar (her functioning idol here) to fulfill her need.  This was Sarah's way, not God's way...Ugly things happened (Hagar does have a son, Ishmael), and Sarah ends of hating Hagar.  Lots of people were hurt, and it was just an all-around nasty situation.

Now, God's way...God fulfilled his promise to give Sarah and Abraham a child.  God's plan didn't involve a servant girl, and it didn't involve heartbreak and hurt.  "At the very time God had promised them" (21:2) Isaac was born, and Sarah and Abraham finally became parents.  God hadn't forgotten Sarah's need, and God didn't neglect to keep his promise.  But when we are waiting on God, it requires a little faith.  Sometimes it requires a lot of faith, the longer we wait.  However, God's plans for us are not to harm us.  God keeps his promises because God loves us.  

So instead of depending on ourselves, our friends, our jobs, our money, or whatever else is functioning as our idol in our time of waiting, let's just depend on God.  He's got the answers, and He will always come through- at the exact moment that is best.  I love that song by Jesus Culture that says "when the oceans rage, I don't have to be afraid, because Your love never fails."

Just coming out of a time of waiting, I can see now how God's plan and God's timing really are better than my own.  I hope that season of my life will always be a reminder of God's faithfulness even when the wait is hard.  Praying for some friends this morning who are waiting on their adoption from overseas.  I have a friend who is waiting for a job, just like I was.  My husband is waiting for classes to be offered so that he can finally graduate and be done with college.  Most of us are probably in some sort of waiting room.  I hope that we can be patient and faithful as we wait on the One who is faithful.