“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope…” (Jeremiah 29:11)
That’s a great, hopeful verse. Very comforting.
Why don’t we live in that reality of God’s plans? Often, it’s because our big, bright ideas get in the way.
In Genesis, God told Abraham about a plan God had for him.
“...’Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are–northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.’ ” (Genesis 13:14-16)
Abraham didn’t even have a child, and God was telling him this. Later on, God confirmed it again:
“...’Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And [God] said to him:
“ ‘So shall your descendants be.’ “ (Genesis 15:5)
So Abraham and his wife got together and talked it over. They felt they were obviously too old to have kids. Abraham was about 86 and his wife, Sarai, was 76. They discussed the ideas, and finally Sarai had a bright idea.
“The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant, Hagar. Perhaps I can have children through her.”
Let me fast-forward this story a bit.
You’ve heard about the trouble in the Middle East right now, right?
That’s where it started. Right there. Sarai and Abraham’s bright idea.
I read a true story, “Son of Hamas”, about the oldest son of one of the seven men who founded Hamas. This son converted to Christianity and ended up working as a double agent for Israeli intelligence until he finally left.
“I know the intricacies of this war better than anyone,” he wrote. (I’m paraphrasing.) “It really boils down to the conflict between Hagar’s son, Ishmael, and Sarai’s son, Isaac. That animosity between those two brothers is what’s causing all this bloodshed today.”
According to how Sarai perceived it, 76 was too old to have a kid. But she hadn’t counted on God.
God waited until Sarai was NINETY YEARS OLD before she got pregnant for the first time in her life.
Talk about a geriatric pregnancy.
God didn’t stop Abraham from sleeping with Hagar. But her son, Ishmael, was not the anointed one. Sarai’s son, Isaac, was. God prophesied about Ishmael: “He shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him…” (Genesis 16:12).
Sarai and Abraham’s bright idea, their attempt at ‘helping God out’, is still tearing the world apart today.
I have bright ideas which are also destructive.
Recently, a friend texted me:
“Call Jeffrey about his shoes.”
So I called Jeffrey. He was all excited. He had been praying for new shoes, and out of nowhere, it seemed,
God had provided shoes that were perfectly his size.
What Jeffrey didn’t know was how close he came to not getting his shoes.
I had the bright idea that those shoes were mine. A friend had offered them to me, and eager for new footwear, I’d tried to make it work. They almost fit me. But the shoes cramped the sides of my feet a bit. Finally, a friend asked me to officially measure my feet.
Don’t judge me, but I had never done that before.
I discovered that technically my feet were two sizes too big for that pair of shoes.
I would’ve never been fully comfortable in them. If I had kept them, I would have blocked God’s provision for Jeffrey.
The same thing happened with a woodworking business I pursued. The more I pushed, the more I sensed: “This is another Ishmael.”
Like with the shoes, I was pushing to make it work.
When God brings something in my life, I don’t have to push to make it work.
That’s a good indicator of me trying to make it happen instead of following God in it.
Over the winter, I went to buy some product for my business. I went to a certain area to get the product. I visited one outlet after another. But nothing felt right. I finally settled on something “good enough”. But I knew in my heart it wasn’t God’s best.
God’s not in the best idea I have out of twelve.
God is God. Perfect and complete, lacking nothing. His ways are not my ways.
I got that product, but it wasn’t God’s perfect. That was evidenced pretty quick. It was my “Ishmael”.
When I returned, I let God lead me this time.
This time, God led me deep into what looked like a wasteland. Somewhere that made no sense to my brain. Just like Sarai had to let go of what made sense to her.
And there, in the middle of what should have been a wasteland, I found it.
On my very first stop searching for the product was God’s “Isaac” for me.
It’s not worth it to push it. It’s not worth it to try to make it fit, like I did with that pair of shoes. Nor do we need to override what we feel deep inside to make it work.
God doesn’t need our help. His perfect Will will be done. He only needs our agreement.
Wouldn’t you agree?
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