Shortcutting the Will of God
GENESIS 16:1-6 

We live in a fast-paced culture and are accustomed to quick results. Waiting appears to be an activity of past generations.

It’s no surprise, then, that we have a hard time if God doesn’t answer a prayer right away. But when we refuse to be patient, our only option is to step out of His plan. Today’s passage tells how Abram and Sarai (later Abraham and Sarah) took matters into their own hands because they did not like the Lord’s timetable.

Ten years had passed since God promised them a son, and Sarai was aging. So she and Abram decided to let her servant Hagar bear a child for them. Sarah eventually did give birth in her old age, but that lack of patience led to great strife—for their family and for us today. Much of the tension in the Middle East can be traced to two people groups: the descendants of Hagar and of Sarah.

Why would a godly couple choose a path of self-sufficiency? First, Sarai’s intense desire clouded her thinking. She desperately wanted to provide her husband with a son—which was a basis of women’s worth in that culture. Next, she succumbed to wrong thinking. After years of childlessness and longing, she began to think that perhaps the Lord needed human help. Finally, she influenced Abram to believe this faulty reasoning, and both gave in to impatience.

These traps still pose danger today. We’re not immune to strong desire, human reasoning, or the influence of others. Impatient by nature, we could easily justify taking action in our own strength. The best advice is to listen, obey, and wait. God’s timing is perfect, and we don’t want to miss His best

Divine Guidance

You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.

Psalms 73:24

The psalmist felt his need of divine guidance. He had just been discovering the foolishness of his own heart, and to prevent himself from being constantly led astray by it, he resolved that God’s counsel should be his guide. A sense of our own folly is a great step toward being wise, when it leads us to rely on the wisdom of the Lord. The blind man leans on his friend’s arm and reaches his home in safety, and likewise we should give ourselves up implicitly to divine guidance, without doubting, assured that even though we cannot see, it is always safe to trust the All-seeing God. “You will” is a blessed expression of confidence. He was sure that the Lord would not neglect the necessary task.

Here is a word for you, believer; rest in it. Be sure that God will be your counselor and friend; He will guide you; He will direct all your ways. In His written Word you have this assurance fulfilled in part, for Holy Scripture is His “counsel” to you. We are happy to have God’s Word as our constant guide! What is the sailor without his compass? And what is the Christian without the Bible? This is the unerring chart, the map in which every shoal is described, and all the channels from the quicksands of destruction to the harbor of salvation mapped and marked by one who knows the way.

O God we bless You, that we may trust You to guide us now, and even to the end! After this guidance through life, the psalmist anticipates a divine reception-“and afterward . . . receive me to glory.” What a thought for you, believer! God Himself will receive you in glory-you! Though you are wandering, erring, straying, still He will bring you safe at last to glory! This is your portion; live on it today, and if perplexities should surround you, go in the strength of this text straight to the throne.

The family reading plan for

1 Samuel 25 | 1 Corinthians 6