Day 264: Our Way

Genesis 15:2-5

But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.” Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”

Genesis 16:1-5

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.) So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt. Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The Lord will show who’s wrong—you or me!”

Genesis 18:10-15

Then one of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!” Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?” Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.” But the Lord said, “No, you did laugh.”

Genesis 21:1-5

The Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would. And Abraham named their son Isaac. Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born.

For some reason we sometimes think we know more than God. For whatever reason we think we know more than the all knowing, living God. We somehow think that we are smarter and that we know what’s best. You ever decide to do God’s job for Him because He’s not moving fast enough or He’s not doing what you want Him to do? I know I have, I can only speak for myself, but sometimes I can get impatient with God. Sometimes I decide that my way, my plan, and my ideas are better than His. I end up looking like an idiot in the end.

I feel like someone who can relate to this is Sarah, or Sarai, she was still Sarai when these passages started (God likes to change names). However in this familiar story, Abram is told by God that he would be the father of many nations. Abram was past childbearing age and so was Sarai, so his concern was, I don’t have a child who will be my heir? God then promised him that he will have an heir, and numerous descendants, countless descendants.

Stop right here, you ever worry about something and God is like, ‘don’t trip I got it handled’? That’s basically what God is doing here, He’s like Abram, you don't have any kids now, but you will have a plethora of descendants and they will outnumber the stars in the sky. God never told him when that heir would come, but He told him that it will. We may not know when God is going to do something but we must have faith that ‘s He’s doing it.

Moving on to the next passage when sarai decides that she’s tired of waiting on God to give her a child. In other words she takes matters into her own hands. Sarai is getting old, way past child bearing age, So she’s like Abram, sleep with my maid Hagar, so you can have a child, and we can have a child through her. Let’s stop right there. In her eyes Sarai was doing what was right, she was doing the only thing she thought possible. A common mistake we make when we exclude God from the equation. She didn’t want Abram to go on without an heir so she decided to find a way to give it to him. Most likely in her eyes she was being a good wife. Abram agreed with her, despite what God had already told Abram, he agreed with his wife, instead of standing on God’s word. It’s not stated how long it’s been since Abram received the promise from God, but I get the sense that he is tired of waiting. I think we all know what it’s like to be in both Abram and Sarai’s position. We try to do what right not realizing that it’s not what God wants. It doesn’t come from a place of malice or anything like that, we just want things to go right, but we do it our way, not God’s way and it never works out. We see that in the passage when Hagar begins to act towards Sarai with contempt because she is having and has had Abram’s child, Ishmael. His first child might I add. God is not a God of confusion.

When waiting on God, and looking at a situation that seems impossible we begin to doubt the power of God. Sarah, (her name has changed) hears that she will be pregnant within a year. This is a message from God sent through a visitor. When Sarah hears this she laughs, and she’s basically doubting what God is saying. Like, ‘yeah sure an old worn out woman and an old man are going to have a child. Yeah God, sure, you’re funny.’  But God proposes the question if there is anything too hard for Him. I’ve been in positions where I have felt like not even God could help this mess. Everytime He has proven me wrong. But when we think about it, no there is nothing too hard for God, nothing. He makes the impossible possible. We’re talking about the same man that created the entire universe.

Then God does exactly what He said He was going to do. He said Abraham and Sarah would have a child and his name will be Isaac. Isaac could only come from Sarah and Abraham, so no matter how many maids Sarah got to sleep with Abraham none of them would have been Isaac.

All this to say, we have a way that we think is right and there is a way that is even better than ours. God has a plan for all of us and it may take time to come to fruition but when it does, all the waiting will be worth it. We do not know more than God. It’s easy to take matters into our own hands because we think we know what we’re doing, but when we compare our knowledge to God’s we literally have no idea what He has in store for us. Trust God’s way, it’s so much better and easier in the long run.

Reflection

1. Have you ever had a moment when you decided that God is taking too long so you decide to take matters into your own hands?
2. Have you ever felt like something was too hard for God?
3. Have you ever tried to do God’s job for Him?
4. What have you found about trying to do things your way versus god’s way?

Prayer Time  

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Talk to God about what we discussed today and have a conversation with Him.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for day 265!

Day 125: Let's Not Jump to Conclusions

I’m pretty sure we all have that one friend or family member that could win the gold medal for jumping to conclusions. Even when it’s out of nowhere, and over the smallest things. We all know that one person that makes a big deal out of nothing, and complicates life more than it has to be. We all know this person, and if you don’t know this person...you most likely are this person 😁. I think we have all been in this place in our life, and are probably still going through it. I know me personally, I can be the queen of jumping to conclusions, I can jump to a conclusion faster than a from leaps through lily pads.

Today I want to talk about how we sometimes do this in our relationships with God. We think we know how the story is going to end or what will happen because we got a small taste of something. when we really have no idea.

Proverbs 28:5

Don't jump to conclusions - there may be a perfectly good explanation for what you just saw.

You ever see or hear something, and automatically come up with some type of conclusion as a reflection of what you just witnessed.  Like an argument over text, you read a text message, you can’t really know the tone of it, because it's a text message, but you create it in your head. Thus leading to an argument over assumption. Parents jump to conclusions when children are being nice and doing things we weren’t asked to do, like cleaning. They assume that we must want something. Most of the time we do but that's not the point right now. They assume before they know, but we still love them. 👅😂 My point is we have all done it, and many of us still do.

Genesis 12: 10-20

Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance,12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. 17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

Now here is a story of what can happen when you jump to conclusions too quickly. Abram probably won a lot of brownie points with his wife for this one. He told her she was so beautiful that other men might kill him in order to have her. So he came up with the plan to say they were siblings. When Pharaoh finds out he angrily sends them away. Abram could have just said, this is my wife and not been kicked out by Pharaoh. Pharaoh obviously was grieved that he almost had another man's wife. Jumping to conclusions got them both kicked out. 

Sometimes we do this to the people in our lives who mean well and even to God. We assume the worst when, if we just take the time to understand what is going on it might not be that bad. You ever concluded that God wasn’t listening or didn’t care because you did not get an immediate response, or something did not work out the way you planned. I know I have. Sometimes it’s unintentional, there’s this whole “if this, then that" theory. If God doesn’t do this by this time, then He must not want me to have it. Or if God doesn't answer, when I want Him to, then He must not be listening. That is not always the case, God is working on us, and His timing is perfect, and sometimes at the onset of trouble we assume we know how this story is going to end. Sometimes we come to the conclusion that God is punishing us for something we did wrong. God can be preparing us for a blessing or preparing us for something He is about to do in our lives but because we are so quick to jump the gun and assume, we end up standing there with our mouths open in shock when we realize what He is really doing. We can’t jump to the end before we take the journey. Sometimes the end we see is just a mountain blocking the finish line.

We also do it to other people, as Abram did to Pharaoh, and all the men of Egypt. We assume we know something about people because of what we see or feel. Abram did not give the men of Egypt a chance before coming to the conclusion that they would kill him for his wife. How many times have we done this to someone, rather it be someone we know well, or not that much? It happens a lot in relationships and friendships. The moment something doesn’t go as we think it should we assume the worst. We pull away when we think our relationships are going south. Without first taking the time to suss through what is actually going on. It may not be what we think.

Have you ever been in a position where someone assumed that you were leading a life of sin because they haven’t seen you at church in a while? Or because you are “acting different”? Or have we done it to someone else? We cannot assume we know what’s going on in someone’s life if we never talk to them. We cannot assume we know what God is doing if we only go to him when we need something.

Moral of the story, our minds can sometimes deceive us, it’s a human flaw. But we do not have to act on the conclusions we jump to. Make sure we know the full story before we assume. We might realize that we were wrong.

Reflection

1. Are you one to jump to conclusions?
2. What was the outcome?
3. Do you think jumping to a conclusion is helpful? Why or why not?

Prayer Time

Allow your  answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Speak to God about what ever resonated with you.  Have a conversation with Him.

I love you, I hope you have an amazing Day or Evening! Share this with someone, without being subliminal, and make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 126!