Then the Lord said to [Abraham], “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there" (Genesis 15:13).
Our Father, You are a God of promise, a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God. You say of Yourself, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please’” (Isaiah 46:9-10).
When You speak, O Lord, we know for certain that Your word is true, that Your plans prevail, that Your purpose stands (Isaiah 14:24). Yet often what You speak is so unfathomable, so beyond our understanding, so past finding out! (Job 36:26).
O Lord, our finite cannot grasp Your infinite, our temporal cannot grasp Your eternal, our limited cannot grasp Your boundless. So when Your covenant road leads through Egypt, and through the wilderness, and through the Via Dolorosa, and through the cross, we struggle to understand. And we struggle to understand divine timetables and designated timespans set on a continuum of eternity.
Yet, You are God, You are good, and Your promises never fail. Teach us to know You, to believe You, to trust your plan. Help us to look at You when we do not understand—when the path to promise leads through suffering, estrangement, or oppression. Help us to look at You when we face the hard truths, and the time seems endless, and the waiting is difficult.
Father, You are an unchanging, promise-keeping God. Help us to trust that when You have accomplished Your purpose You will bring us through to afterward—when we will come out with great possessions (Genesis 15:14)—great spiritual gain, and every blessing You have planned for us. So teach us full surrender, with the attitude of Eli, “He is the Lord; let Him do what is good in His eyes” (1 Samuel 3:18).
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