Waiting Patiently

 DEVOTION

TO HEBREWS

WAITING PATIENTLY

Heb 6:13-15

13 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, "I will surely bless you and give you many descendants."   15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.

NIV

Although this is part of a greater argument showing the supremacy of Jesus over the law, which those Hebrews this letter was first written to were leaning toward, we also find an eternal truth beneficial to all who live as Abraham did. This is another place we can see the faith of Abraham that we know because of his faith, God counted it to him as righteousness. Abraham lived before the law was given and before Jesus came to earth as a man, yet God imputed righteousness to him because of his faith. Because of our faith in Jesus, we have this same righteousness imputed upon us. Jesus is our righteousness, we must be in Christ as He must be in us. Therefore, we live by the same faith Abraham did and have the same righteousness as Abraham did, we are his descendants. We, like Abraham, are waiting with courageous endurance for the promise that has been given to us. First, God has promised us eternal life if we believe in the one He sent, Jesus. It is by faith we are saved and not by any works whatsoever, so that we cannot boast about ourselves, but only boast in Jesus. We also have been promised by Jesus that he would prepare a place for us and come back to take us to that place so that we can be where He is. We have more promises, but those two are the greatest of all we, like Abraham did, wait patiently and we will receive what was promised. We do wonder how Abraham waited patiently. What did he do in the meantime while waiting? Certainly, he did not just sit around waiting, although we know that Sarah was impatient and gave her servant Hagar to Abraham and she bore him a son who became Ishmael. Yet the promise of God brought Abraham and Sarah their son Isaac, whom God told Abraham to sacrifice, and through his actions of faith, God counted it to him as righteousness. What we learn here is that our faith is also linked to our actions, although the work does not produce our salvation, we cannot just sit around waiting but must sacrifice ourselves as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God, which include our actions, which some would call our works. We also know these actions cannot stop. Can we retire from serving our Lord? Can we quit our actions because we get old? We have too many Old & New Testament men of faith, who served God until he took them home. Let us continue with courageous endurance and wait patiently to receive what was promised to us.