“Now Sarai,   Abram’s wife, had borne him no children.   But she had an Egyptian slave   named Hagar;   ² so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children.   Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”  Genesis 16 1-2

When my husband and I were first married, he was not the “handyman” he is now.  Through many learning experiences, he and I both learned forcing something is not a good idea!

We have a travel trailer and I dearly love to travel with it!  Our lives had gotten very busy and one day we decided to pack up and just set out, just the two of us.  We had not had any time at all together in literally several months!  When my husband went to get his keys to the trailer he couldn’t remember which key fit which lock on the door.  I went out with him, because I was going to begin to load the trailer as soon as he unlocked it.  He put the key in and it wouldn’t turn.  He decided he was going to force the key to turn.  This was a very bad idea!  As I began to say, “Don’t force it, you will break it!”  that is exactly what he did.  He forced it so hard he broke the key off in the door!  All this did was make more work for him, since he had to figure out how to get the key out AND unlock it.  All of us at one time or another have wanted something so badly, we try to force it to happen!  If you think about it, it never turns out well.

I knew a lady once that wanted her daughter to marry a certain young man.  He was a young and practicing attorney and the woman felt her daughter would be happy with him and the lifestyle he could provide for her.  The only problem was the couple did not love each other.  The parents thought the match was a wonderful one and to please the parents, the couple married.  The marriage was a disaster and much hurt came to many!  Instead of the couple trusting God and listening to Him lead them to the one that was right for them, they forced a relationship!

Some people do hear from God on situations in their lives. God has promised great things, but they get tired of the wait.   Just like Sarah, if the promise they have been given doesn’t come in THEIR timing, they begin to “help God out” and make a bona-fide mess of it and postpone the promise in the process.  If you will read the rest of the chapter our scripture is taken from, you will see Sarah only made things worse by FORCING God’s promise, instead of waiting and letting Him give her what He told her He would surely do!  If she had just waited, so much disaster and heartache could have been avoided!

God does not need our help, He needs our trust.  Forcing things to happen will always just complicate them more!  Follow God and He will bring it about!  He will do it perfectly.  You will find out that what you were trying to force to happen was probably one of  the worst things that could have happened  or you would have missed out on a great opportunity had you not waited for God to orchestrate what He had planned!

God’s timing is perfect!  He is never late, He is always right on time.  Don’t get ahead of God, my dear reader!  Follow Him and He will lead you into marvelous things!

Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog!  I appreciate you, dear reader!!  May God richly bless you with ALL good things!!

Categories: DEVOTIONS, OP-ED

Tags: Abraham, Abram, Being in God's perfect will, Genesis, God, Hagar, Israel, Lord, Marriage, Sarah