obedience

Pregnant with Doubt

/ hislight54 / Leave a comment

In Genesis chapter 16, we find Abram and Sarai’s hope fading once again about ever having a child. We are reminded once again that Sarai has bore Abram no children and in this time of waiting for a promise that never seems to come true, Sarai gets the idea that she and Abram can still have a child if Abram sleeps with her handmaid Hagar. Sarai tells this to Abram and he listens to her – he goes along with this plan. It doesn’t say that Abram protested, expressed any opinions, struggled, nothing. It just says that Abram listened to his wife.

So Abram goes and sleeps with this other girl and gets her pregnant. Once his wife Sarai notices that Hagar is pregnant (which must have taken some time, it couldn’t have been immediate) she also noticed a change in Hagar. Hagar started looking down on Sarai and treating her poorly. Hagar was disrespecting the chain of command and that made Sarai angry.

Sarai went to Abram and told him how she felt and Abram was like “look this is your servant, handle it” so Sarai was SO mean to Hagar that Hagar ran away.

Upset, pregnant, probably lacking resources and scared, Hagar went off into the wilderness. An angel came to the wilderness looking for Hagar and began to talk to her about her situation. The angel asked her a very important question, ” where are you coming from and where are you going?” Once the angel heard her out, Hagar was given a blessing saying that she would have a multitude of offspring, but that her son would be a wild and crazy guy. The angel told Hagar to name her son Ishmael which means God hears. Then the angel instructed Hagar to go back to Sarai and submit to her.

Hagar called that place in the wilderness Beer-lahai-roi, meaning the well of the God who sees me, because God saw her in her place of affliction. She went back to Abram and Sarai and gave birth to Ishmael when Abram was 86 years old.

For me, this story touches a place deep in my soul. That place that is waiting for a promise that doesn’t seem to come. The promise that keeps getting told to me, the one I have heard many times and am waiting in anticipation, but I see nothing in my life that points to this promise coming true. Like Abram and Sarai, I have my doubts and sometimes I come up with my own plans to “help” God with His promise, but that never seems to work out. The amazing thing is that the promise is still a promise. God’s word for my life doesn’t change just because I can’t be patient. Abram and Sarai didn’t lose out on their promise just because they tried to figure out their own way of doing things, they just had some added complications to their blessing.

I also greatly appreciate how God dealt with Hagar. She wasn’t trying to mess up anyone’s blessings, but when she got blessed when someone else didn’t, she got a little arrogant. She treated someone she served poorly because she thought she was better than her. That led to some consequences and Sarai treated her poorly as a result. I don’t know what kind of relationship they had before, but even if it was just cordial and professional, that relationship was now broken and both sides were hurt.

Being extremely hurt, Hagar ran away, but God met her in that broken and lonely place and sent someone to talk with and listen to her. I love the question that the angel asks, “where have you come from and where are you going?” It’s a great self reflection question about where we’re at and what led us to get to this place and how are we going to get out of it. A lot of times brokenness, anger, mistakes and sin have caused us to run away to the wilderness, but God sees us and meets us in these lonely places. He will even bless us in our mess, but then He instructs us to turn back to that broken place and return with a different attitude.

Now I imagine that it was extremely hard for Hagar to go back to a broken relationship and submit. I bet it was extremely hard to go back to someone who treated her so harshly and stay in that place and not have content in her heart. I bet it was equally hard for Sarai to accept Hagar back into her presence after she treated her poorly and then seeing Hagar run away, but that’s the beauty of God. He calls us back to the broken places so the His glory can shine.

Now the text doesn’t say that Sarai welcomed Hagar back with open arms, but it also doesn’t say she backhanded her upon arrival. I imagine there was some awkwardness as they both tried to navigate the broken relationship, but I love that God sent Hagar back for the chance to make things right.

Be encouraged, God is the God who sees us. He will keep His promises to us and even if we mess up along the way, he will give us another chance to make things right. He is the God of many chances, so even if you are currently in the wilderness, if you were hurt, if you did the hurting, if you have doubt, if you messed up something so bad that you don’t think it can ever be fixed, know that God hears you and he will give you another chance to go back and try again.

The Grass is Always Greener…

/ hislight54 / Leave a comment

Genesis chapter 13, we find Abram and his family leaving Egypt heading to Negeb (the dry land south of Judah). Abram had A LOT of stuff, including riches and livestock. Now the thing about livestock is that they need a lot of space to graze and live. As they were setting up camp, it became apparent that the land couldn’t support Abram (with all of his possessions and livestock) and Lot (his nephew who was traveling with his own possessions and livestock). It was like having two large families try to share a studio apartment, there just wasn’t enough space.

Strife (conflict/fights) started breaking out between Abram’s camp and Lot’s camp. Abram told Lot that family shouldn’t be fighting, so he told Lot that they needed to separate, but that he would give Lot whatever land he wanted. Lot decided to head to the lusciously green land of Sodom and Gomorrah (let’s take note of this appealing to the eye land for a later chapter) and they separated. So Abram settled in Canaan and Lot went East.

Now, the text tells us that the men of Sodom were wicked and big giant sinners against God. In other words, they were the bad guys in just about any movie you can think of. You know the guys who twist their mustache before doing something stupid and you just want to punch them in the face? These were those guys. More on them later.

Anyways, God went and talked to Abram after he separated from Lot. God told Abram that all the land that Abram sees is going to be his and his offspring’s (note – he still doesn’t have kids yet and he’s older that 75 years old at this point). God tells Abram that he will have so many offspring that he won’t be able to count them. After their talk, Abram moved his tent to Mamre (a land of oak trees) and built an alter to the Lord. And that’s where we leave this chapter.

Sometimes we have to separate ourselves from people we love for the sake of keeping the peace and expanding the kingdom. When you have such a large camp and someone you’re traveling with also has a big camp, there might not be enough resources for you both to stay in the same place. Assess your situation and make sure your not cramped into a space that’s causing you to fight. The thing I love about how Abram resolved this situation is that he loved his nephew so much that he let him have his pick of the land. He gave Lot the choice of the best place in all the area to go and dwell and Abram took what was left over. Abram was a peacemaker.

The great part of this story is that God blessed Abram after this. Abram gave up the better land and God told him that ALL of the land would belong to him and his family. Isn’t that just like God to bless us back double when we’re obedient to let go of the little things? Be encouraged, if God is asking you to give something up, it’s so He can make room to give you something so much greater.

Adventure Time at 75!

/ hislight54 / Leave a comment

In Genesis chapter 12, we are introduced to Abram and Sarai (later named Abraham and Sarah) a married couple who are in their 70s. They had already lived 7 decades worth of life in Ur (a wealthy land) and were now about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime. God came and spoke to Abram and made him a promise. He said, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee.And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Basically, God said I need you to go to a new place away from the land and the people you know to do something new. If you do that, I will give you lots of land, you’ll build up a great nation, and anyone who is good to you, I’ll be good to, but anyone who is bad to you is going to get what’s coming.

So at 75 Abram packed up his things, took his wife (Sarai) and his nephew (Lot) and went to the land where the Canaanites were (Ham’s offspring – the ones who were cursed because of what happened with Noah… there was some tension there). God told Abram that He was going to give this land to Abram’s offspring (note that promise of offspring for later), but Abram kept travelling. There was a famine (lack of food and resources) in the land, so he decided to go on down to Egypt.

When he got to Egypt, he noticed that his wife was getting a lot of attention because she was good looking and he was scared that if they knew he was married to her, they would kill him. Being scared, he asked his wife to lie and say that she was his sister. Now Pharaoh liked what he saw, so he wanted to put a ring on Sarai. Thinking that she was Abram’s sister, he took her to his palace to be his wife. God didn’t seem to be to pleased with this, because he sent all kinds of plagues to Pharaoh’s house. Pharaoh was not pleased.

Once Pharaoh learned what the truth was, he yelled at Abram for lying to him, gave him back his wife and told him to take his things and go. And that’s what he did. Abram wasn’t killed, it doesn’t say what God thought of the lying (it seems like He was mad about the potential adulatory part though because – the plagues), and Abram and his family got to keep all their possessions. And that’s how we end chapter 12.

I think the takeaways from this are that God can use you at any age. At 75 Abram left all that he knew to start over, he just had to be willing to go. The same is true for us. At any age, if we are called to a new journey, we just need to be willing to pack up our things and go. That being said, we need to remember God’s promises and not get scared away from what we’re supposed to do.

God promised Abram that he would have land, have a nation, and that people that were good to him would be blessed and those that were bad to him would be cursed. Pharaoh experienced that first hand with the plagues. So why did Abram fear that he would be killed when he went to Egypt? It’s simple – doubt.

Abram (like most of us – me in particular) doubted the promise of God. Maybe it was because people hadn’t followed through on their promises to him over his 75 years on the Earth, maybe it was because God gave his promise and Abram expected the promise to come out of a microwave like some golden holy Hot Pocket ready to consume, or maybe Abram doubted that God could use someone like him. We don’t know the reason, but he doubted for sure.

Just like Abram, we doubt what we heard too. We doubt our callings, especially in the waiting period. But can I give you a great revelation that I had the other day? A homemade meal that takes all day to cook and heats the house up to a million degrees and makes you sweat and causes your stomach to grumble during the preparation process and makes you think about food ALL DAY LONG tastes a billion times better than a hot pocket. I’m not saying that God can’t move quickly on the promises He has given you, but what I am saying is that if He doesn’t move quickly it’s just because He is preparing something that will taste delicious and just needs a little more time in the oven. Be encouraged, He keeps His promises!!

40 Days, 40 Nights and Then Some

/ hislight54 / Leave a comment

In Genesis chapter 7, Noah and his family are shut into the ark with all of the animals. God told Noah to take 7 pairs of clean animals, or animals that can be used for sacrifice, and 2 of every unclean animal and then He shut them all in the ark, sealing their safety.

And it rains for 40 days and 40 nights. And after it rains, they have to stay in the ark for another 150 days because the Earth was still flooded. That’s 190 days in tight quarters with only your immediate family and a whole bunch of animals.

Before the rain came, there was a seven day waiting period. 7 days where anyone could have come and knocked on the door of the ark and asked to be let in. 7 days where the people of the Earth could have seen impending doom and asked for a second chance. That’s not what happened though. The rains came, flooded the Earth and took out all of humanity except for those on the ark. Noah and his family were the only ones marked safe during the storm.

Now I don’t know about any of you, but if I was lucky enough to be one of the survivors, I would have gone crazy. They would have renamed Cabin Fever after me and called it Ark Fever. Being stuck in a boat with a bunch of animals (and animal poop) with only a limited amount of people to be around and an even more limited number of activities would have driven me up the wall. God did not make me to live in an ark, but sometimes it feels like it.

Although God hasn’t flooded the Earth to wipe out all that is bad, He has definitely flooded my life to get the same results. There have surely been seasons where God has said “pack up your things, get on this boat, you’re the only one I’m saving.” Sometimes there’s people in the boat with me. And just when I’m about to go mad, just when it feels like I will never see dry land again, the rain stops and the flood waters retreat and I get to try again. So be encouraged! Even when we are in the storms of life, there is hope because it won’t rain forever and you are not alone in the storm.