Verse of the day: Genesis 16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain
children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.
Today’s
devotional is a great lesson on the consequences of failing to wait on God, and
presumptuously thinking that our plans, done our way, will work better than
His. Sarah and Abraham are waiting for God to fulfill His promise that they
will have a child from which God will bless them with descendant too numerous
to count. Yet, in their impatience, and Sarah’s failure to completely trust
God, she decided to use worldly wisdom and reasoning to “help” God along with
fulfilling what He already promised He would do. It has been about ten years
since Abraham and his family had settled in the land God led them too, and now
a moment of impatience is about to produce a lifetime of problems that affect
the Middle East, even today. Sarah’s choice to give her servant, Hagar, to
Abraham as a wife, will begin troubles in their family, as well as in the
families of generations to come, right to our present day. Sarah, first points
a finger at God because she still has not bore Abraham a child. She was correct
in that God is the One with the power to open and close the womb as He chooses
(Gen 20:18; 30:22-23); however, can I say at this point that it is okay to
acknowledge such a fact if we are doing so for the purpose of pointing out God’s
power and omnipotence? However, let us be cautious that we not make such a
statement as an accusation that God is intentionally, and wrongfully,
withholding something from us that we think He should be giving us, or doing
for us. Sarah points this out, more so, as a way to justify herself in giving
Hagar to Abraham as a wife to “fulfill” God’s promise. I will say this now…God
does not need our help in carrying out that which He promises to do in our
lives. Abraham, agrees to go along with Sarah’s plan, and does not stop to
consult the Lord in whether or not he should follow the suggestion of his wife.
We must be cautious that we not allow ourselves to follow the advice of another
person, simply because we are of close relation. The measure for deciding whether
or not advice is good advice, or godly advice, is to measure it against what
God has said, and not the source from which we are receiving it. Our close
family members and friends do not always give advice in accordance to what God
want, but is often based on what their desired outcome is. The end result of
this decision to go along with Sarah’s idea is that Hagar and Sarah are now at
odds with each other, Sarah blames Abraham for how things turned out, even
though it was her idea and suggestion, and ultimately Hagar leaves in an
attempt to escape the mistreatment she received from Sarah. The long term
affects of this decision, today, is that we have two groups of people who are
fighting over a land that was promised to the descendants of Sarah and Abraham,
not Hagar and Abraham. All too often, when we choose to do things based on our
own desired end, ignoring God’s will and plan for a situation, we end up
causing serious complications for ourselves, our families, and people that we
did not even consider, or think, would be affected by our selfish choices. When
we become impatient while waiting for God to give us direction, or fulfill a
promise in our lives, we show a lack of faith and trust in God, and we
ultimately create troubles for ourselves that could have been avoided if we
remember a couple of simple truths. First, God’s timing is not our timing, and
God’s ways are not our ways. Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us that there is a time for
everything (and it’s all in accordance with God’s timing). 2 Peter 3:8 reminds
us that a day is like a thousand years to God, and a thousand years like a day.
In Isaiah 55:8 God reminds us that His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His
ways are not our ways. When we do not understand God’s delay in doing
something, we must trust that He has a reason for His timing, and He always has
our best interest, and His glory, in mind, in respect to His timing. One of the
greatest tests of our faith are those moments when God chooses to make us wait
on His timing to fulfill part of His plan for our life and service to Him. Let
us not lean on our own understanding, but in all things, and all our ways, trust
Him with all our heart (Proverb 3:5). God will never fail to fulfill His
promises, in His way, and His time.
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