This week I’m on to Genesis 12-50. I’ve been focusing on Sarai, Abram and Hagar in my reading so far in Chapters 15-21. God had promised to give Abram a son. Rather than patiently walking in faith and trust Sarai chose to take things into her own hands and control the circumstances rather than waiting on God. Did she think it wasn’t possible? Maybe. It’s easy to look at things through our feeble human minds and think there is no answer to our circumstances because we can’t fathom the infinite power and resources that our Heavenly Father has. I think that Sarai yielded to her flesh in many of the ways that we do today. The result was impatience, lack of faith and trust, and a desire for control. Does this sound familiar to any of you? Do you ever exhibit these traits of the flesh? I know I do!
So Sarai got tired of waiting on God and gave her maid, Hagar, to Abram to lie with him. Chapters later we see that this was unnecessary, we find Sarai with child, resentful of Hagar and Hagar’s child. If only Sarai had waited paitently rather than trying to make things happen on her own!
So the question we should all ask ourselves…
What’s my Hagar?... What have I taken out of God’s hands and am trying to control and make happen on my own rather than waiting on Him?... once you find it, surrender it on the altar of our King, for His ways are so much higher and better than the ones we develop on our own!
One more side note on this… I think of this and the Proverbs 31 verse about a wife who does her husband good all of her days. In this case Sarai not only did her husband harm, but urged him to turn from God’s promise. Oh Sarai… it’s okay, no one is perfect, we all make our mistakes. This is an example of God taking our polluted human sin and using it for His good, glory and purpose, praise be to Him!
Shannon
2 comments:
my "Hagar" is a husband, it's my desire to be married. it's all i think about, pray for, and desire. i am so sick and tired of finding my worth in men. i'm exhausted. i'm broken. i'm tired of trying to feel like i have to have my act together before God will bless me. i feel like He's holding out on me until i can "prove" to Him He's enough. i'm at the end of my rope...yet so daggum stubborn. i hate it.
Girl, I've been there! I've been at the place where most of my friends were married and I wanted a husband and tried to find my worth in guys... but it didn't work out for me too well. But then, once you're married it's not over, because there's always other things to fulfill your heart than the Lord if you'll let them. I go back and forth between letting my desire for being a mother be a "Hagar" for me or not. Just last night I prayed with a group at school, and really meant it, that if God doesn't ever give that to me that He'll be enough for me and I'll be okay, but then this morning when I started thinking about how I can't feasibly see my plans working out I got frustrated... no less than 24 hours after I surrendered it to God I tried to take it back again! Once I realized what I was doing I just had to pray and let go, but it's hard, but He is bigger than all of this, He is better than the wildest dreams that we dream up for ourselves... if we'll just stop wanting what we don't have and start appreciating what He's already given us... like starting with the cross!
Are you still talking to Eli... I haven't seen any posts about him on your blog lately?
Shannon
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