HELPING GOD OUT

Helping God Out

Do you ever find yourself helping God along? Perhaps He doesn't seem to be moving according to your time table as with Abraham and Sarah. God made a promise that Abraham would be the father of many nations but he had no offspring of his own.

"I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great" Genesis 12:1 "Look, You have give me no offspring; indeed on born in my house is my heir? And behold the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 'This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from you own body shall be your heir. Then He brought him outside and said, 'Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.' And he said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.' Genesis 15:3-5

Although Abraham and Sarah believed God, no pregnancy resulted. So Sarah took things into her own hands and gave her handmaiden Hagar to Abraham as his wife. A child was conceived from their union, however he was a child born of the flesh he was not God's promised child.

"For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic." Galatians 4:22-24

Abraham and Sarah helped God out and it resulted in two peoples that have been warring factions through the generations.

Abraham's son and daughter-in-law, Isaac and Rebekah conceived twins after twenty years of marriage.
"But the children struggled together within her; and she said,
"If all is well, why am I like this?" So she went to inquire of the Lord.
And the Lord said to her: "Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from you body; One people shall be stronger than the other,
and the older shall serve the younger." Genesis 25:22-23

When time came for Isaac to bless his firstborn, Esau, Rebekah convinced Jacob to deceive Isaac and receive the blessing of the firstborn. She was helping God keep His promise. Sound silly? Don't we do the same thing?

I do the same thing. I clearly have this promise from God's word:

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.
Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.
He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday.
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him...
Psalm 37: 5-7

Oh, I do okay for a while trusting, dwelling, feeding, delighting, committing, and resting. But when I decide that God is taking too long bringing it to pass, I make efforts to try to help Him along. I have yet to push Him into responding to my timetable. It is another life lesson being fleshed out in the reality of my experience.

So, are you helping God along? Are you trying to get God to operate on your timetable or do you trust God to keep His promises in His perfect timing?

Diane