When God promises something and it doesn’t happen on our time table or how we think it should, the natural human tendency is to become impatient and concoct ways to make God’s promises happen for ourselves. Yes, we are to take action – INSPIRED action – staying calm, being obedient to God, listening, remaining in faith and acting wisely. But when we seek to control elements that are outside our authority (what God wants us to do), we can do more harm than good.
The biggest messes of mankind have happened when people interpreted what God’s promises were, and then impatiently tried to MAKE God’s promises happen when, how, where and with whom they wanted.
Even good believers get carried away trying to “make” what they believe God has promised happen. Look at Abraham’s wife Sarah and the crazy way she tried to have a child because she thought it was her job to fulfill God’s promises.
God promised Abraham and Sarah a child, but Sarah was way past childbearing years and she laughed. Eventually, she became really old and still no child. So she took matters into her own hands. She used some law on the books that said if her servant had a child with her husband, the baby would be Sarah’s child. Maybe this would fulfill God’s promise?
So this poor servant (Hagar), having no say in the matter, is brought in, and has a baby with Abraham per Sarah’s instructions. Then all kinds of jealousy and problems ensue until Hagar flees into the desert with her child (Ishmael) and nearly dies.
Most of the mess in the Middle East to this day is because Sarah tried to use her own logic to fulfill God’s promises. She manipulated another person (Hagar), twisted a law around to justify her objectives, and tried to control when, where and how God fulfilled His promises.
Eventually the promise was fulfilled when Sarah actually gave birth to Isaac (Abrahams child). God did it miraculously and completely illogically.
When God promises something, it’s important to realize that He’s in charge of the who, what, why, when, where and how.
The only “who” we can control is ourselves and our motivations (our “why”). God is in charge of who else is involved, why He’s doing things the way He’s doing them, when it will happen, where it will happen, and how.
The more we try to take the reins away from God and manipulate other people or force things into our when, where, how and why, the bigger the mess we make.
In our country today, I believe this principle is very relevant. In all our “what if” scenarios, or gloom and doom predictions or contrived theories, or manipulation of laws, or imposing our will onto other people, aren’t we doing what Sarah did? Aren’t we basically laughing off God’s promises and assuming we have to figure out how to make them fulfilled our way, on our own time, on our own terms, with our own visible resources?
Let’s have faith, be obedient to God, and praise Him ahead of time for the blessings He’s promised the righteous. Then we can stop worrying about how it’s going to happen, and instead “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.”
What would trusting God look like even if everything fell apart? That’s what I explore in my new novel, “Z: A Dystopian / Millennium Novel,” available on Kindle and Paperback and free on Kindle Unlimited.
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