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Helping God Out

Words of Faith Final

Helping God Out
Words of Faith 3-22-2022
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2022
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL    
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
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Genesis 16
    Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; [2] so she said to Abram, "The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her."
    Abram agreed to what Sarai said. [3] So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. [4] He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
    When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. [5] Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me."
    [6] "Your servant is in your hands," Abram said. "Do with her whatever you think best." Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

        The walk of faith does not come easy, even for a patriarch and matriarch such as Abram and Sarai. They were still learning! Such lessons can be challenging. Without any apparent hope of a baby, Sarai and Abram decided to "help God along" with this family planning process.
        Sarai suggested that Abram go and sleep with an Egyptian maidservant who would act as a surrogate to bear a child. Abram didn't put up any argument, and there were no gains here in the journey of genuine faith. This sort of thing was actually a common practice in the ancient world, but it was never the plan or design of God. This was not the promise that had been given, and God did not need any "help."
       The immediate result of this "plan B" was a conflict between Abram and Sarai. When Hagar became pregnant with Abram's child, she began to resent and even despise Sarai. Sarai blamed Abram for the situation, and everyone was in a bad way. This was a family moving into more and more challenging waters.
        What was the long-term result of Abram and Sarai's disobedience? We will see in the verses ahead just how far-reaching the consequence of disobedience can be!
        We often think of disobedience as breaking a command or directive of God, but "helping God" with our own idea or plan can be just as disobedient. Abram and Sarai had learned to walk by faith. They had learned to trust and obey, yet they grew impatient and determined to make their own plan to fulfill God's promise. Such disobedience can be disastrous.
        But doesn't the Bible say that "God helps those who help themselves"? No, actually. Ben Franklin said that. Not God. This does not mean that God does not use our minds and abilities to accomplish His will. He will often inspire a plan in us, but we must listen, trust, and obey. We must be careful to neither run ahead of God nor lag behind. God does not need our help. Ever. He does require our obedience. We need to obey Him. Faith will often require patient waiting.
         Have you been helping God along? Have you at one time or another manipulated things so that what you understood to be the will of God could be fulfilled? That is not faith.

       Father, forgive me for my times of impatience. Forgive me for thinking that I could help you out with my plans. Teach me to listen. Teach me to trust. Teach me to obey. In Jesus' name.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2022
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)        
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2022 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.