Genesis 16:1-2, “Sarai, Abram’s wife, hadn’t yet produced a child. She had an Egyptian maid named Hagar. Sarai said to Abram, “God has not seen fit to let me have a child. Sleep with my maid. Maybe I can get a family from her.” Abram agreed to do what Sarai said.” (msg)
I am by far no expert in regards to airplanes, flying or pilots! But as comical as it may sound, I did have the opportunity to speak for a pilot safety program. Now, truth be told, you really wouldn’t want to fly in a plane that I taught anyone about! Why? Because I don’t know the first thing about it! However, I was invited because of a devotional I wrote called “Soaring & Stress“, where I used the analogy of pilots dealing with turbulence, and the stress that comes as a result from it. And in case you didn’t know, stress is a real issue for pilots, so they kind of sneaked me in for one of the programs, under the radar several years ago.
Two of the safety directors took me to lunch one day to brief me on what to expect. In the process, one of them told me that over 80% of the crashes that involve private pilots are because of Pilot Error. Then he told me about a disease that has killed many pilots (and many passengers as well). He called it “get-there-itis.” Meaning: “I’ve just got to get there!” Kind of a “By Any Means Necessary“ motto! But this becomes a problem because they don’t adequately evaluate the weather, or the plane, or their own personal condition. Instead they make a short-sighted choice that often leads to disastrous consequences for everyone! However, you don’t have to be a pilot to be in danger of catching the “get-there-itis” disease.
Now, there’s a biblical case of “get-there-itis” in Genesis 15:4. God made this awesome promise to Abram, “Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man [Eliezer] will not be your heir but he who shall come from your own body shall be your heir.” (AMP) Well, needless to say, a lot of years passed; Abram had a lot of birthdays, and so did Sarai. But…the promised baby had none, because it didn’t come. And what happens with many of us when God makes us a promise, but too much time has elapsed (at least in our own opinion), and it’s still not fulfilled? You guessed it, there’s panic and planning! And it was no different for Sarai.
So on to our text in chapter 16. “Sarai, Abram’s wife, hadn’t yet produced a child. She had an Egyptian maid named Hagar. Sarai said to Abram, “God has not seen fit to let me have a child. Sleep with my maid. Maybe I can get a family from her.” Abram agreed to do what Sarai said.” (MSG)
And as they say, “The rest is history.”
Here was a decision that did bring about a son, but it was the wrong son. It was a problem instead of the promise; Ishmael by name. What happened to the promised child, you ask? Well, thirteen years later Isaac would come; you know, the one that God had promised, not the one Sarai was determined to produce of her own accord! And boy did she get what she asked for! But this decision to try to make it happen brought terrible conflict in Abraham’s family and, honestly, even to our world all these thousands of years later as the descendants of Ishmael, the Arabs, and the descendants of Isaac, the Jews, continue to fight it out!
Now, look, Abram and Sarai had a worthy goal, the one God had promised, a family, but God was taking longer than Sarai expected. So Sarai sinned the sin of “get-there-itis.” She made a disastrous choice because she had to get there, by any means necessary. She just had to get what she was asking for! Well, before you judge her too harshly, maybe you could look back on some of the choices that you’ve made in your past and see that you’re not so different from Sarai. I know for a fact, I’m certainly no different.
Let’s be honest, there were some moments you couldn’t wait, so you just took off, and you caused a crash. Or maybe you’re about to sin a sin of “get-there-itis” today! And maybe it’s even a good goal. Maybe it’s something you want to accomplish for yourself, your family, business, ministry or church. Maybe you want to get married, or something to help your child, or to help other people. BUT, God hasn’t made it come to pass. So, you’re starting to push, to plan, to scheme, to arrange, to manipulate to make it happen.
And truthfully, I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve sat across from someone in counseling who has that very same testimony…’If only I just waited on God.’ How many marriages wouldn’t have fallen apart; ministries and churches split; homes foreclosed; businesses shut down; finances dry up, and all because we just had to make it happen, by any means necessary, instead of waiting for God to make it happen, in His time, in His will, in His way.
However, Unfortunate For Us, We Preferred To Travel Down The Harder Road Of Trying To “Help” God Out. We Start Formulating Plan ‘B-Z’ Since God’s Plan ‘A’ Is Taking Entirely Too Long! We start interfering, scheming and scamming only to get what we wanted, but not at all what we needed!
I like Warren Wiersbe’s definition of faith. He said, “Faith is the absence of scheming.” In other words Sarai, stop trying to pull a Hagar; which is nothing more than a tragic hurry-up of God’s plans.
And the sad part of it all is that God had already promised them a son, the plan was already in the works. They only needed to trust God, walk by faith and wait. And people of God, we’re no different. There are some things that God has promised us, but we’re getting antsy now. It’s been 5 years since the promise of a child; 10 years since the promise of a spouse; 15 years since the promise of a ministry, and now we feel the need to “help” Heaven and the Hand of God (as if that were ever needed or possible!)
And one of the things I don’t think we take into account when attempting to “help” God out, is all the pain that comes from the process of trying to produce something before its time. Abram and Sarai’s marriage relationship is strained; Sarai and Hagar’s relationship is strained; Sarai gets lost in her emotions and acts out on the person she drafted into her plans in the first place; Hagar is not even consulted, she’s simply commanded to sleep with old man Abram and produce a child she wouldn’t be able to claim as her own; Abram is battling with 2 women and a kid on the way; and then when the kid gets here, Sarai is mad, Hagar is sent away…it’s just a mess! And all because Ms. Sarai couldn’t wait on God, His will or way, she just had to get what she asked for!
Anything You Do Outside Of The Timing Of God You Will Pay A Pretty Steep Penny For! And Not Only That, But So Will All Those You Draft Into Your Madness! Think About It, When’s The Last Time You Heard Of A Pilot Crashing A Plane Full Of People And He Was The ONLY ONE To Die?! People Attached To You Suffer From Your Choices And Consequences!
Many of us are accustomed to having a back-up plan. We’re depended upon to figure stuff out, to make it work, to fill in the gap, to strategize how to rob Peter to pay Paul. But all of that is all of us, and none of God. You see, it’s not like Sarai was hoping for a promise, the promise was already given she didn’t even have to ask for it, it was given without the need of her request. All she had to do was wait on the timing of God for its fulfillment. And that’s exactly where we get it wrong! We have a tendency to get impatient, devise a plan and go wandering instead of waiting. But what does the Bible have to say?
Habakkuk 2:2-3, “And then God answered: “Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. This vision-message is a witness pointing to what’s coming. It aches for the coming – it can hardly wait! And it doesn’t lie. If it seems slow in coming, WAIT. It’s on its way. It will come right on time” (MSG) Listen: Your promise does not need you trying to clock its’ arrival time! God has already appointed its’ arrival time, you’re just frustrated because God didn’t give you the ETA on your promises arrival. But it doesn’t need to be put on your agenda! All you have to do is trust God and WAIT! And the part I love about that Scripture is, “…IT CAN HARDLY WAIT!” Listen, what God has promised you is so excited to get to you that it can hardly wait, but what happens when you can hardly wait, and so you involve yourself where God didn’t need your assistance and now your Promise is on Pause!
And what happens next?
Genesis 16:3-6, “So SARAI, Abram’s wife, took her Egyptian maid Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. Abram had been living ten years in Canaan when this took place. He slept with Hagar and she got pregnant. When Hagar learned she was pregnant, she looked down on her mistress. Sarai told Abram, It’s your fault that I’m suffering this abuse. I put my maid in bed with you and the minute she knows she’s pregnant she treats me like I’m nothing. May God decide which of us is right,” “You decide,” said Abram. “Your maid is your business.” Sarai was abusive to Hagar and Hagar ran away.” (MSG)
I find it absolutely amazing that Sarai gave her husband to another woman to bed and wife, and yet her response to her own devised plan is: “it’s your fault” Sounds a lot like another portion of Scripture involving Adam and Eve: “GOD, It’s the woman you gave me!” Or maybe another example found in King Saul, “It was the people’s fault I made the sacrifice!” or maybe Pilate? “I know Jesus is innocent, but I’ll give the people what they want and wash my hands of it all!” In other words, when things go as we Asked, but not as we Wanted, the Blame Game Begins and the Finger Pointing Starts! But that’s often what we do, when the back-up plans, That we made for God, don’t work out, it’s everyone else’s fault, but our own of course! And all of this could’ve been prevented if only Sarai waited on GOD! But there’s no need to get mad now! This was your genius plan, this was your proposal; this was your idea! You picked the plan and the woman and gave them the blueprint to follow in building you a son, and yet, this is his fault?! No dear, you needed to wait on God, because He already made you a promise, your problem came about because of your own impatience and plans!
Now, let’s be fair Abram, because you indeed had a hand in this mess too! Remember what God told you Abram: Genesis 15:4-6, “Then God’s Message came: “Don’t worry, he won’t be your heir; A son from your body will be your heir.” Then he took him outside and said, “Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You’re going to have a big family, Abram!” and he believed! Believed God! God declared him “Set-Right-with-God.” (MSG) Abram, God gave you the promise of not only a son from your own body, but also that you would have a big family. It concludes that you believed God…so what happened?! If you believed Him at the time He gave the promise, why would you lose sight of the promise in the meantime? All you both needed to do were wait and trust God, but as my mom would say, ‘that was too much like right’!
Don’t make the mistake of attempting to rush God or help God out! He knows what He’s doing. He knows what He promised you. He knows the perfect time to bring it to pass. Don’t pull a Sarai and come up with a back-up plan, and don’t pull an Abram, receiving a promise, believing the promise and then agreeing with your wife to do the polar opposite of the promise!
Don’t mess up God’s Promise over your life by attempting to Produce a Harvest from a Seed God never told you to Plant!
Truth is, this Winter we had a 60 degree day. But did that mean the Season changed and now it’s suddenly Spring? NO! The Seasons are Pre-Scheduled to Change at Their Appointed Time, and So Are the Seasons in Your Life! You Can’t Rush It, But You Can Surely Ruin It! Therefore, Always Wait For God’s Due Season!
Please hear me loud and clear, this is our Word of Warning Today: WAIT! And even if it’s slow in coming, still WAIT! Why? Because it’s on its way! It will come on time and will not lie! Remember this: We have absolutely NO reason not to trust God to keep His Word!
Isaiah 55:8-11, “I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work.” God’s Decree. “For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think. Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth, doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, so will the words that come out of My mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.” (MSG)
Can you imagine having such a Word of Promise over your life that it can’t fail, can’t stop, can’t be blocked, can’t be left undone, but has to come to pass, and not just while you’re still on earth, but even up until the day of Christ Coming! In case you ever doubted it, please believe me when I tell you sons and daughters of God, your Father loves you! You don’t have to strategize, plan, scheme, manipulate, or devise a back-up plan to bring God’s promise to pass in your life, it’s guaranteed that it’s coming to pass because God Himself has already held Himself accountable to make sure it does, and He can’t lie!
Jeremiah 1:12:
“…I am [actively] watching over My Word to FULFILL IT.” (AMP);
“…I’ll make EVERY WORD I give you COME TRUE.” (MSG);
Are You Getting This?! This is how strongly God feels about the Keeping of His Word! That should further encourage us to trust whatever His plans are for our lives. Because He will Make Sure that His Word Given to Us, to Fulfill His Purpose, Comes to Pass! In Other Words, God Doesn’t Need Your Help to Produce What He Promised!
Numbers 23:19, “God is no mere human! He doesn’t tell lies or change His mind. GOD ALWAYS KEEPS HIS PROMISES.” (CEV)
So, when you feel like God’s promises are dragging their feet, dig your heels in faith a little deeper and remember GOD ALWAYS KEEPS HIS PROMISES! There is no need for you to try and pull out a Hagar, Sarai, just trust the God you serve and you’ll eventually see what HE SAID!
Don’t take off just yet and don’t panic and die of terminal ‘get-there-itis.'” Remember in the opening story, 80% of the crashes, were PILOT ERROR, the hurry to get there before time! Don’t let this happen to you, your family, your business, your education, your employment, your career, your ministry, your church! God has a foolproof plan, therefore your back-up plan is not needed! The term “foolproof plan” is defined as: “done, made, or planned so well that nothing can go wrong; no opportunity for error, misuse or failure; designed so as to be impervious to human incompetence; infallible; guaranteed; certain; safe; never-failing; sure-fire; unbreakable; incapable of going wrong.” Now does any of that sound like it needs a back-up plan? Absolutely Not! God’s Plan Will Prevail and Produce What He Promised!
Jeremiah 29:10-11, “…I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out – plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.” (MSG)
In other words, Sarai, My plan doesn’t need yours! And for us, He Doesn’t Need OURS Either!
Therefore, how about today we deliberately choose to leave this in God’s hands? Let Him bring it to pass in His time. You’ll have a great flight if you do. But if you force it, you’ll crash it. And that goes for everything. Don’t try to force a friendship, relationship, career, schooling, children, marriage, ministry, business, church or anything else. Just trust God and plant in seed-time and watch how greatly you reap in harvest.
But even farmers will tell you, no matter how great the harvest, you still have to WAIT for it! And no matter how great the promise and plans are, you still have to WAIT for them. God has not forgotten, be patient and WAIT for what God promised so you don’t have to suffer from what you produced!
In a Nutshell: Don’t Wander, Just Wait!
Remember: Be Careful What You Ask For, Because You Just May Get It!
Blessings
J.P. Olson
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