|
Is God Faithful?
by Annagail Lynes "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." - Isaiah 55:9 (NIV). There is a deadline approaching for meand the resources I need, the provision I was believing God to manifest in my life doesn't look like it is anywhere in sight. I am human, so I developed a back-up plan. I did something I wouldn't consider before. In the long run, my solution will cost me more, but I panicked and came up with my own Ishmael. You remember the story of Abraham in the book of Genesis. God promises him a son. Several years passes, and Abraham's promised son hasn't arrived. His wife Sarah gets this idea. She sends him in to sleep with her maid servant Hagar in order to conceive a child. Poof! Hagar becomes pregnant. She has a son. Ishmael. That must be the promised son, Abraham and Sarah think, but God says "No." God's plan was for Abraham to have a child through his wife Sarah. Through his wife. Not through a maid servant. Only Sarah is getting up in age and so is Abraham. Hebrews 11:11 tells us, "Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised (KJV)." She judged Him faithful who had promised. Like Sarah, we have to judge Him faithful who had promised. God promised to provide for my needs (Philippians 4:19), but He didn't promise to do it when I want it or the way I want it. God doesn't think like me. God's ways are far superior to mine. When the deadline is approaching and the provision is nowhere on the horizon, the tendency to create Ishmaels is part of our human nature. Instead we need to remember that God is faithful, that God's ways are far better than anything we can ask or desire. We have to learn to trust that God knows what He is doing no matter what we see or don't see. We have to judge Him faithful who promised, and that includes me. Annagail Lynes is a pharmacy technician, certified life coach and ordained minister. She is helping people move forward after trauma by helping them discover their purpose. Follow her blog at 316counseling.com Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |