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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Rushing God's Promises...

"So Sarai said to Abram, 'Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children.  Please go into my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her...So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael."--Genesis 16:2, 15. Sarai, failing to trust God that she would bear Abram's (Abraham's) son decides to take things into her own hands and give Abram a child through her maid servant, Hagar.  Sarai was rushing God's promises.    

This account is what is at the heart of much of the religious debate that goes on between Muslims and those of both the Jewish and Christian religions, the birth of Ishmael.  Ishmael would be what the Scriptures describe as "a wild donkey of a man" and his hand would be against everyone.  The Muslim religion did not originate at this time but this account found in Genesis 16 is at the core of their belief system.  This is true all because Sarai rushed God's promises.

Rushing God's promises.  The Muslim discussion aside, how often do we do what Sarai did? We don't trust God to fulfill His promises His way so we try to make things happen on our own.  More often than not, this works against us.  The text tells us that Hagar despised Sarai after conceiving Abram's son.  In Genesis 16:5 the text tells us Sarai blamed Abram for this.

Rushing God's promises.  Too often when we try to take things in to our own hands, things don't quite work out the way we had planned and too often we blame others for the consequences of our own actions.

We need to learn to be patient and give God room to work.  Being patient sometimes means allowing God to work in a person's heart so that they might come to an obedience to the gospel, rushing a person can destroy any hope of this happening.  Rushing God's Promises can also lead to severed or strained relationships. This is what happened with Abram, Sarai, and Hagar.

So my encouragement is that God has made promises and unlike human beings, God never breaks His promises to His people.  So let's stop Rushing God's Promises.  DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!    

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