My boasting vs. “Only God”

 

When prayer goes unanswered for a long time, I’m tempted to take matters into my own hands. Today’s devotional illustrates the folly of doing that with the story of Abraham. God promised to bless him and make a great nation of him, but his wife was barren. Eventually, both of them aged to the point that child-bearing was humanly impossible. 

But before that, Abraham became desperate and decides to bring about God’s promised Son without supernatural intervention. He has sex with Hagar, his wife’s handmaid. The result is not a “child of promise” but a “child of the flesh,” Ishmael.

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. (Romans 9:6–8)

For anyone who knows the story, God “brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:5–6)

Piper likens this to a pastor who hears God promise to bless his ministry, but the prayer goes unanswered. So the pastor does as Abraham did by taking matters into his own hands and using mere human devices to attract people without the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. It might work, but the church will be filled with children of the flesh, not children of God.

For me, I liken this to any kind of ‘walking in the flesh’ to make things happen, things that I’ve prayed about for many years. My results might ‘look good’ but unless God does the work, my efforts will produce ‘Ismaels’ and not ‘Isaacs’ who could be called barren fruit as well, totally unlike those who are children of the promise and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Human manipulation might have some sort of success, but this is nothing like the work of the Holy Spirit in my life and in the lives of those people that I pray for. Over the years. I can think of dozens of examples, both positive and negative.

The human tendency to ‘do it my way’ can be so strong that it appears to be a God-thing, or an answer to prayer, or even obedience. However, God knows the heart and can keep His people from doing the human thing. For example, my sister was driving to visit an uncle in the hospital. She was determined to tell him about Jesus, but asked God, “If this is not the right time, turn me around.” At that moment, she hit a patch of ice, her car did a spin and she would up in the ditch facing the other direction! She went home, made the visit the next day, and our uncle invited Jesus into his life. He died two weeks later.

PRAY: Just as You saved my sister from trying a DIY action, be as clear with me. When I am tempted to use any of my own methods, or manipulation, or timing to control someone else, turn me around too — before I wind up with a result like Ismael, who became the father of Israel’s enemies even to this day. The consequences of walking in the flesh can be “successful” but to what price? That kind of success is pathetic compared to Your answers to prayer, and even to the patience and faith You build in me as I wait for them. Far better to say “only God” than to boast “Look what I did.”