April 3: Sarah: Trusting God’s Timing

Theme: Learning Patience and Faith in the Waiting

Leisa Walker
Kings SDA Church

Scripture Reading:

“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31. 

Waiting is one of the hardest things we do as believers. We pray, we seek God, and we hold on to His promises, yet sometimes, the answers seem delayed. In these seasons of waiting, it’s easy to grow impatient or even doubt that God is working at all. 

But here’s the truth: God’s timing is always perfect. He sees the full picture when we can only see a small part of it. When we rush ahead of Him, we risk missing the best He has for us. But when we choose to trust His timing, we allow Him to shape our character, deepen our faith, and prepare us for the blessings He has in store.

Sarah was not patient. Sometimes we learn just as much from negative examples as positive ones. And for us, the Old Testament Princess, Sarah shows us a picture of a lack of patience. Sarah and her husband Abraham followed God, they had the special privilege of hearing many of God‘s promises from God himself. God promised them a son, but years passed with no sign of fulfillment and in their impatience, they took matters into their own hands, leading to hardship. Yet in his faithfulness, God still fulfilled his promise in his perfect time.

Waiting isn’t about inaction, it’s about active trust. It’s about continuing to seek God, obey Him, and believe that He is working behind the scenes, even when we can’t see it. It’s in the waiting that He strengthens us, refines us, and teaches us to rely fully on Him.

How many times do we also take matters into our own hands as Sarah did, thinking that God is not with us, that God will not come through for us? 

One of the things that patience works in us is that it gets rid of pride. Impatience is caused by pride, and patience burns it out of us. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit Ecclesiastes 7:8. When we become prideful, our hearts are full of ourselves and not of God. We focus on us and not on Him. We want our timing and not His. We want it now and not later.

God allows us to go through difficult times in order to break us of our pride in thinking that we can make life work on our own. Difficult times forces us to stop looking into anything or anyone else but Him for our help. Not waiting on God reveals a prideful and independent spirit. When we are patient, we are willing to wait on the Lord for as long as it takes. We are willing to stand strong in Him, no matter what comes. We are willing to trust His perfect timing for everything. 

God makes it very clear in His word, how He feels about pride. He doesn’t like it. We are warned that “pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” Proverbs 16:18.When we become prideful or full of ourselves, God will not seem as close as He once was. 

Reflection Questions:

• Are there areas in your life where you’re struggling to trust God’s timing?

• How can you shift your focus from impatience to faith?

• What is God teaching you in this season of waiting?

​​​​​​Power Texts

Isaiah 26:3 – You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.

1 Peter 5:6-7 – Therefore humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that He May exalt you in due time, casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you 

 Prayer: Heavenly Father, I know Your ways are higher than mine, and Your timing is perfect. Help me to trust You even when I don’t understand the delays. Strengthen my faith and give me patience to wait with hope. I surrender my plans to You and choose to rest in the promises that You are always working for my good. Lord, I praise Your name. I exalt You above all things. You are, my King and my Lord. In the midst of everything that is happening in my life, and all that I am going through, I know that You are the all-powerful God of the universe. Lord, hide me in Your secret place in my time of struggle. You are my help and I will hide myself in You. I praise You for all that You are. No matter what is going on around me You are in charge of my life and I trust You to bring good out of it. Help me to endure any hardship in such a way that I may glorify You in it. As I go through tough times, when everything seems to be going wrong, I draw near to You and disengage from the concerns of this life. I thank You, that You are able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that I asked or think according to the powers that works in me, Ephesian 3:20.