Blaming Someone Else for Our Failure

25 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by eisakouo in Abraham: Life of Faith

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Abraham, Advice, assessing and shifting blame, bear story, blame game, confession and repentance, deal with mistakes, Erica Jong, Genesis 16:5, god has a way, Hagar, miss God's will, never come to the knowledge of the truth, running away from problems, Sarah, wasted time and energy

We Miss God’s Plan for Our Life When… We Blame Someone Else for Our Failure.

Then Sarai said to Abram, You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering.(Genesis 16:5)

I am sure Abraham said to himself; “What have I done? It was all my wife’s idea. If she hadn’t insisted on me sleeping with Hagar, then I wouldn’t be in this mess.” Even though assessing and shifting blame makes us feel better, it accomplishes nothing. The moment we begin to blame others, we lock ourselves into permanently missing God’s will. Why? Because we never come to the knowledge of the truth about our own condition. There is no room for confession and repentance. If this happens, we hinder ourselves from coming back into God’s will.

How many times has it been beneficial for you to say, “It’s his fault or it’s her fault?” Has this type of rationalization helped your spiritual walk or simply comforted your flesh? Everyone loses when we try to play the “blame game.”

People who are out to find fault seldom find anything else.

In our passage it was Sarah who blamed Abraham for the problems with Hagar’s conception. Maybe Abraham remained quiet because he knew he had stepped out of God’s will. Even if we blame no one else but ourselves… it is wasted time and energy. The reason is because we don’t move on to learn from our mistakes and correct them. The time and energy you could have spent on making a U-turn is spent on blaming yourself.

It appears all parties here in this story hope their “problem” would simply disappear. Sarah mistreated Hagar and Hagar left. Notice Abraham didn’t send a search party to find Hagar, and Sarah wasn’t pleading for Abraham to go out and find her. God has a way of making us deal with our mistakes rather than hoping they take care of themselves.

The story is told of two hunters who came across a bear so big that they dropped their rifles and ran for cover. One man climbed a tree while the other hid in a nearby cave. The bear sat down between the tree and the cave. Suddenly, the hunter in the cave came rushing out, almost ran into the waiting bear, hesitated, and dashed back in the cave. The same thing happened a second time. When he emerged the third time, his friend frantically called out, “Woody, are you crazy? Stay in the cave till he leaves!” “Can’t,” panted Woody. “There’s another bear in there.”

Running only causes our problems to reappear. Whenever we run away from problems we need remember we will often face very same or similar problems down the road. What we don’t deal with today, we will deal with someday. Running doesn’t solve anything. Even if everyone seems to agree with you, if you are running away from problems and conflicts in your life, you are running the wrong way. Even if everyone is running alongside of you, you are wrong.

The best course of action is to always take it to the Lord, confess, repent, and get directions on how to solve the problem.

Blessings,

Pastor

What Happens When We Abandon God’s Timing…

22 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by eisakouo in Abraham: Life of Faith

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Abandon God's timing, Abraham, benefit others, detours, Genesis 16:3, God knows best, Hagar, Ishmael, lasting consequences, mistakes, Plato quote, potiential disaster, Sarah, seed of abraham, spiritual speeding tickets, strengthen our faith, waiting on God, weakneses

We Miss God’s Plan for Our Life When…

We Abandon God’s Timing and Settle for Self Timing

So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. (Genesis 16:3)

It is a mistake to forsake Godly foresight, especially when it is surely given. One mistake often births a second and then a third. I don’t know about you, but I barely recover from one detour, never mind a second or third detour. The scriptures reveal that Ishmael was born because Abraham and Sarah couldn’t wait any longer. Because they couldn’t wait for God, they also failed to detect the potential disaster their mistakes would create for millennia to come.

Now maybe you still don’t think that looking ahead is important and disobeying God is no big deal. Maybe you think that your mistakes are “your mistakes” and they do not affect anyone else. As believers, it is imperative we look ahead and seek Godly foresight.

Our sins, errors, or mistakes have lasting consequences. In the case of our passage today, Abraham and Sarah missed the fact that their “Ishmael” would create dissention. First, Hagar and Sarah began to argue and disagree due to jealousy and envy. Eventually, God’s promised child was born. Now this same dissention carried over to the next generation. As you know, the conflicts between the seed of Abraham (Isaac and Ishmael) continue to this day. Does all this seem like a good idea? What seemed like a good idea soon became a colossal disaster. Now it might have seemed like a good idea for Abraham to have a son by Hagar, after all Sarah was too old, but they failed to look ahead.

Have you ever received a speeding ticket? Did you conclude, “I shouldn’t have received that ticket. I wasn’t speeding.” But I ask – Are there consequences to speeding? You may think not if you conclude… “There are no consequences if I don’t get caught.”

Yet the ones who do not get caught are the same ones who wreck and cause others to wreck or kill themselves. Speeding has consequences. One teenager in Philadelphia has received 440 tickets! He faces possible fines of up to $88,000, 6 years in prison, and a lifetime ban on driving.

One of our prayers should be – “Lord, catch me now. Give me a ticket now before I make a big mistake. Help me to look ahead with Godly foresight. Help me to slow down and go in Your speed and time.”

SPEEDING – Is thinking your “time” is more important than the law.

SPIRITUAL SPEEDING – Is thinking God is moving too slow, therefore I need to speed things up.

If God were passing out spiritual speeding tickets today or if Gabriel were to pull you over, would he give you a spiritual speeding ticket for getting out of God’s timing? It is far better for the Lord to “ticket” you before you get out of His timing and bring lasting consequences upon you and your family.

Sometimes we must wait so God can prepare us for what lies ahead.
Sometimes God makes us wait so that He can work on some weaknesses we have.
Sometimes God makes us wait to strengthen our faith.
Sometimes God makes us wait to benefit those who are watching our life.
Sometimes God makes us wait in order to give us His very best, not just what is adequate for the moment.
Sometimes God makes us wait for reasons only He knows.

Whatever the case, the better choice is to wait upon the Lord.

Blessings,

Pastor