God’s Way or My Way!

Most of us like to think we are ok people most of the time. We have learned not to hate people and be nice to everyone (almost!). We try and do what we can for God, and we try and “get on with our own lives. “
But hang on! What does that mean – to “get on with our own lives”?

For most people it means doing what you want to do. You follow your own interests, spend your time on who or what you are interested in, and the same goes for your spending habits.

But this is often portrayed in the Bible as precisely why the world is in the mess it is in; because we spend our lives focussed on our own interests and scarcely notice our neighbours’ battle with poverty, loneliness, and spiritual poverty. Child slavery produces most of the chocolate we eat and people shrug it off as an inconvenience to their eating pleasure. People want global warming to stop but are appalled that they might have to pay for it! People want an end to 25,000 preventable child deaths a day around the world but would choose a tax cut in preference any day!

The story of Sarai, Abram’s wife is such a story. As a person of faith she knew that they were called by God to go to the strange new land of Canaan and settle there while God chose the right time for them to have a child.

In Sarai’s time being childless was considered a sign that God was punishing you and therefore it was a slight on your character. Seeing she was an eminent person in the wealthy clan she was noticed everywhere she went. And she obsessed about it and her humiliation.

After 10 years in the Promised Land she was still childless. God was ensuring that the childbirth would be seen as impossible as a natural event so that everyone would know that the nation that arose was God’s creation. That is why God was waiting till she was ridiculously old. But Sarai wasn’t interested in God’s will, she was interested in her own will and choices.

So obsession led to rationalising about what God had said and so she became a theologian! She wondered whether God really meant her to use her intellect to solve this problem rather than simply waiting to strike lucky with natural relations between husband and wife. So she worked out that according to the customs of the time she could take her slave which she personally owned and use her as a surrogate. The resulting child could be adopted by Abram and Sarai if they found him/her acceptable.

The result of Sarai’s plan was disastrous and led to her slave lining up to supplant Sarai as head woman of the clan through her child. Sarai’s situation had just become more humiliating because she tried to enforce her will and desires into the situation rather that trusting God’s will.

The story shows that even a person of faith can seriously mess up their life and the lives of others by putting their own will ahead of God’s. You don’t have to be a bad person to make this world a much worse place. You just have to place your interests first.

So, how about your life? Is God’s will first or does something else hold prime interest for you? Do you focus all your energies on it?

Heed the warning of the story. Don’t obsess about what you want to happen. Seek first God’s Kingdom and the rest will take care of itself. Mt 6:33

Shalom,
Graeme