Potential

How many times have you heard the phrase..."But they have so much Potential".... We all have potential, but some of us choose to carry it in a little napsack and others choose to actually use it!
Abraham was considered the Father of Faith. God came to Abraham and told him he would make a covenant with him. (Genesis 17) Abraham was 99 years old when the Lord told him he would bring him Isaac...

Genesis 17:
16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.
17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!
19And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
20And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
21But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

I believe in verse 18, Abraham said...Lord look we already have Ishmael, can't you just use him. Can't we just take all the "potential" that he has and make HIM the promised one of you. It seems so logical...I mean here is a man and woman that are 100 years old...But God says in verse 21, No, I have ONE that I have chosen and with HIM I will deliver you your promise.
I think just like Abraham we try to work things out for God. We get weary in our travels. The Lord has given each of us promises in our lives. Sometimes in our "waiting" we, like Abraham, try to fulfill the promises for God.

I personally, have been believing the Lord to send me a God fearing mate. The one the Lord has picked out for me. During this 8 years of waiting, I have tried to give God a hand. Just like Abraham..."Look Lord here he stands and he carries so much Potential....can't we just use him to fulfill your promise...The Lord just reminds me..."HE may carry the potential BUT he is not the ONE I have chosen for you...he is NOT the promise I have given you"

So, in your waiting keep your FAITH...because it is FAITH that is counted towards Righteousness...

Romans 4:13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: 15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. 16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, 17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: 20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

Splinter

Sometimes, no most of the time, we fight our flesh to keep God's will in our lives. I am pleased to say, I just nailed the last nail in the coffin, so to speak, in a 6-month fight with my flesh! Although this last nail was a hurtful one, I know with out a shadow of doubt the Lord was trying to move certain things from my heart.

The lord gave me the following metaphor for me to see what he was doing with me.

Sometimes our flesh can get into our hearts like a splinter. A splinter often times is ½ in the flesh and ½ out. My mother used to tell me, let me get that out of you now, if not your skin will grow over it and it will have to surface out on its own. So, spiritually speaking what I did was allowing this splinter to stay in my heart. I allowed the flesh to grow over it. The Lord had to show me that in order for him to remove this from me, He would have to work this splinter out of my heart. He also showed me that since I allowed my FLESH to grow over it and remain, he would have to cut my flesh…and this would hurt. But My God loves me enough to circumcise the flesh in my heart so that he can move me onward in HIS plans for my life. So, that I might be a useable vessel for His Will, not mine.

So, when you find yourselves in places where you have allowed a splinter to enter your heart, I encourage you to resist your flesh and pluck it, BEFORE the flesh takes over…

Galatians 5:16-17
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.