Prayerfully Consider Every Step

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.) [Genesis 16.1-3]

It doesn't appear that God actually told Abram that his promised son would be from Sarai - He just told Abram that he would have a son and that a servant would not be his heir. Regardless, Abram believed God's promise that he would have a son of his own and it was accounted to him as righteous faith.

So, what does Abram do? He tells his wife Sarai. Unlike Abram, Sarai is not on record as having believed God and the passage noted above tells that story. It could be contrived that Sarai "believed" God would give Abram a son through Hagar - but therein lies the problem with going off second-hand Word from God. Again, we have no record of Sarai having any communication with the LORD in regard to this situation. She simply went off what Abram evidently told her God said and she consequently had no real revelation of her own in the matter.

No doubt, God can and will use a lot of screwed-up man-made situations, but the problems associated with these situations are far-reaching. This story bears that fact out.

Assuming Abram's manhood was not so dissimilar to manhood today, it it easy to see how he agreed to Sarai's suggestion for him to have sex with Hagar (uh-hmm... to have a child by her). Besides, Abram could second guess what God told him and conclude that it would, in fact, be his child - his seed. But he later found that to be not altogether accurate!

The point I feel is being made today is that God does indeed have a perfect will. Human reasoning, assumptions, and ill-advice all stand ready to confuse and detour God's will in our lives. We are well-advised to prayerfully consider every step of our obedience to God and be on the lookout for alternate routes that are, in fact, attempts of an enemy to at very least bring difficulties and hardships to our journey (as in the case of Abram/Abraham).

This lesson means more to me today than I think I realize.

Father, in my own circumstances, help me to prayerfully consider every step I take in obeying and following You.