Day 8

Genesis 15–16 | Mark 2

“And he believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6)

God’s promise to Abram in Genesis 15 is breathtaking—offspring as numerous as the stars. Abram believed, and God counted it to him as righteousness. But by Genesis 16, we see a different picture. Doubt creeps in. Abram and Sarai grow impatient. They take matters into their own hands, trying to force the fulfillment of God’s promise through Hagar. The result? Heartache, division, and consequences that outlasted their lifetime.

Waiting has never been easy—not for Abram, not for me.

Five months after Talacey and I got married, we packed up our newlywed lives and moved 200 miles away for my new job. We were excited. Young, ambitious, ready for the life we had envisioned. But we had no idea what was coming. My salary barely covered our apartment rent, car payment, and gas—forget about food or anything extra. Then the recession hit, and every year like clockwork, my employer cut salaries by another 2%. With Talacey working part time as a preschool teacher while pursuing her masters degree, we had nothing to fall back on.

And then there was the isolation. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t seem to build community. We missed home. We missed our people. We prayed for God to open a door back to Fresno, begged for it at times. I applied for job after job. I updated my resume. I networked. And the silence from God stretched on.

For six years.

I would come home from work to find Talacey in the corner of our small apartment, weeping. “I just want to go home,” she’d sob. And I had no answers. No job prospects. No indication that anything would change. Like Abram and Sarai, I started wondering if I needed to make something happen—force the door open instead of waiting for God to move. But every attempt to take control ended in frustration.

As I look back now, I see what I couldn’t see then: God’s faithfulness in the waiting.

That season—though painful—shaped our faith, strengthened our marriage, and taught us to rely on God and each other when nothing made sense. Eventually, He did make a way. He led us home in His perfect timing, in a way we never could have orchestrated on our own.

Mark 2 reminds me why this matters. When the paralyzed man was brought to Jesus, the crowd expected a physical healing. Instead, Jesus first forgave his sins. Why? Because his deepest need—and our deepest need—isn’t a change in circumstances, but a restored relationship with God. Sometimes God delays the answer we want because He is already working on the answer we truly need.

Abram and Sarai rushed ahead of God, and the consequences were devastating. I’ve done the same more times than I’d like to admit. But Genesis 15 reminds me that faith—real, lasting faith—is trusting not just in God’s promises but in His timing.

Lord, forgive me for the times I try to take control instead of trusting You. Help me rest in Your promises, remembering that Your ways are higher than mine. Teach me to trust Your perfect timing, knowing that You are always faithful. Amen.