Feeling Angry Because Of Your Own Impatient Planning?
Feeling Angry Over A Situation That You Created?
Did you have anything to do with the situation being what it is? Too many times I have gotten angry over a situation in my life only to look back at the very beginning of it and realize I created it. Not intentionally of course, but trying to make something work out that I really wanted. If I look at the heart of my efforts to work out my situation, I also see my lack of trust and confidence in God.
I am in good company. Sarah, a woman who made it into the Hebrews Hall of Faith also got angry over a situation she created.
By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child
when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.
Hebrews 11:11
This same Sarah did not always get her faith walk right. Once upon a time before her great faith, Sarah lacked trust and confidence in her God. So Sarah devised a plan to “fix God’s shortcomings.” God had promised her a baby, but He didn’t give her a date.
Time kept slipping away and no baby.
After 10 years of living in the land of Canaan, Sarah had birthed no babies of her own. Sarah got impatient and devised her own plan. Her plan included another woman and her plan ended up with Sarah feeling angry.
· You can read the whole story in Genesis 16.
Sarah decided to give her maidservant Hagar to her husband Abraham that she might have a baby through her.
Sarah’s plan backfired.
Couldn’t she have seen it coming?
How many times did she play out the scenario in her mind before she ever went through with it? Maybe it was a cycle of: think about it; reject it; play it out; cast it out. Until one day, her patience level maxed out. She couldn’t take it anymore. She had waited long enough. Nothing was changing and God wasn’t doing anything about it.
Sarah decided to forego God’s plan and go with her own.
The desire to have a baby right then and there overruled any consequences from going with her flawed “in the moment” plans.
As my Mama always said, “She made her bed now she had to lie in it.”
She did what she wanted, but the outcome was Sarah feeling angry and anything but satisfied. Was she feeling angry about the injustice of her maidservant having what should have been hers? God not taking care of her situation when He could have easily done so? Maybe she always wondered if the problem wasn’t her but Abraham, but Hagar’s pregnancy annihilated any thought of that. She was the problem… Maybe she wanted Abraham to not go through with her plan.
Why didn’t Abraham just say no?!
We all know Abraham could not come out a winner in Sarah’s plan. If he didn’t follow through, it was going to be ugly because Sarah was going to be angry. When he did follow through with Sarah’s plan, Sarah was angry.
The point for us is that sometimes our impatience motivates us to take action that eventually leaves us feeling angry.
What are we feeling angry about that we created because we didn’t wait on God?
Maybe God sent us red flags regarding our plan and we just kept moving past them. Ignoring the red flags so we did not have to acknowledge that God was trying to get our attention. But the whole time, God’s plan was best.
His plan was worth waiting for. But you and I are a lot like Sarah and we don’t like to wait.
What lessons should we take from Sarah’s story of impatiently making plans for her life above waiting for God to fulfill His good plans for her?
I believe it basically boils down to a trust issue. Deep down our trust in God is flawed in some way.
Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:3-4
Sounds beautiful! But sometimes real-life chisels away at our resolve, our faith, our trust, and our patience. We put ourselves in God’s place and get angry when we don’t like the results.
Here is the good news dear sister! Look back at Hebrews 11:11. What Sarah wanted all along was given to her. Her plan that backfired and caused grief and turmoil in her family and left her feeling angry did not destroy God’s perfect plan for her life.
God is faithful and even when we mess up, He is still in control and working on our behalf.
Let me encourage you with one of our most cherished Bible verses among Christians:
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD,
"plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11
Jeremiah 29:11 is such a beautiful Bible verse. However, most of the time, we never look at the passages surrounding it.
Jeremiah 29:10 says, For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.
Notice the phrase, “after seventy year” – GOD’S PLAN FOR US TAKES TIME!
And on the other side of Jeremiah 29:11, verses 12-14a - Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord…
Do you see it? GOD’S PLANS FOR US COME WHEN WE CALL ON HIM, PRAY TO HIM, SEEK HIM, AND SEARCH FOR HIM WITH ALL OUR HEART!
Dear Sister, take your plans to God. Trust fully in Him knowing that His perfect plans for us take time because He wants us to walk with Him on a daily basis. He gives to us the desires of our heart and His great plans for us when we pursue after Him with all our heart.
Before I go, let me share a book I read several years ago that I found beneficial, Anger: Handling a Powerful Emotion in a Healthy Way by Gary Chapman.
