A few Sundays ago I said something that
I believe is worth repeating here in this blog. We’ve been studying Abraham in the book of
Genesis and one thing I’m pretty convinced of is that when he took Hagar as his
second wife, he knew that was not what God intended for the fulfillment of his
promise to Abraham that he would have a son.
I continue to believe that Abraham knew in his heart all along that God
intended to give Sarah a child. So why
did he do it? Maybe he wanted to support
Sarah in her plan—to give her some relief in how she was feeling as a woman who
had not been able to give him a son.
Maybe the prospect of having another wife was enticing to Abraham’s
lust. Maybe at the end of the day, he
convinced himself this might work but whatever his ultimate motivation, I
believe he knew this was not what God wanted him to do.
But
thirteen years go by and he has a son.
His wives have learned to live with the situation so things seem a bit
better at home but during this time something happens to Abraham. He
begins to believe that he must have been right in his decision to take Hagar as
his wife. So much so that after
thirteen years he doesn’t even think about Sarah having a son anymore. God had promised him a son and by his own
ingenuity he had brought it about—through Hagar. So when God shows up in person to talk with
Abraham and tells him that Sarah’s going to have a son next year, his immediate
response is to laugh to himself at the impossibility of such a thing. Yet God is patient and his rebuke is
gentle. God will bless Ishmael but the
promise God made long ago would be fulfilled in Sarah’s son, a boy to be named
Isaac.
When I read
that and saw what happened to Abraham, I immediately saw a corollary between
what happened to him and what happens to us.
We often do things that in our
hearts we know are wrong. We know God
doesn’t approve but we convince ourselves it’s ok. And as time goes on, and nothing really bad
seems to happen, we convince ourselves that not only is it not wrong, it’s what
God wanted us to do. I think we’re
particularly susceptible to this in relationships with others but really it can
happen in almost any area of life.
Here’s a couple of “for instances”
that I see often. Walking with God
demands a daily personal time of prayer and fellowship in God’s Word but
because we know we can talk to God always and everywhere, and because we’ve
read the Bible before, we rationalize that walking with God doesn’t need that
daily, focused time of meeting with Him.
In fact, we convince ourselves that God would rather have the “on the go
prayers” than the disciplined time with Him.
Commitment to your church family is
a command from God but people rationalize that they can worship anywhere. Before long we have forsaken the church gathered
for worship for fishing on the river. We
convince ourselves this is the will of God because God is everywhere in nature
and we pray before we launch. And
besides, we’re spending time with our children.
I could go on but my point is
simply this; let’s stop rationalizing our disobedience and submit our selves to
God. For some of you, you’ve been so
long ignoring the prompting of the Holy Spirit, it may be hard for you to even
hear His voice still. I’m praying for
revival because in revival we all hear Him clearly once more.
But let this be my challenge to us
in the days ahead. Heed his voice. Listen to His Spirit. When you know something is wrong in your heart,
when you have that check in your spirit, obey God. Stop doing what you are doing. Start doing what you need to be doing. The old song says, “Trust and obey for there
is no other way…” Trust the Lord Jesus
will see you through. He will help
you. And obey those promptings, obey His
voice. There is no other way for us to
walk before him blamelessly than to trust in Jesus and obey His will.
One final word, walking in
obedience is not easy. It often
hurts. It often cost you. There can be a huge sacrifice in not living
for your self. The world says, “You
fool! This is all there is—why are you
wasting your life?” But we know
better. This is not all there is. Jim Elliot once said, “He is no fool who
gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he can not lose.” Christ died for our obedience—now by His
grace let’s live in it.
