Helping God With Our Own Way

By the way the pictures in this section are pretty much unrelated to the topic excepting that their from the retreat, but I can't say I really have any that relate and I figured you might want to see more retreat pictures, so that's that.

The last time we broke into small group sessions we looked at different aspects of being a follower, and mine was that a follower does not attempt to help God by doing things his own way.

For example we looked at the story of how Isaac and Ishmael came into being. God had promised Abraham a son through whom nations would be born. As much time passed and Abraham and Sarah (then Abram and Sarai) were getting quite old, Sarah decided it would be best for Abraham to attempt to have a son through her servant Hagar. What she was basically saying is this: OK, God, it appears that I'm unable to have children, so that means that You can't fulfill Your promise through me, so what we're going to do is use adultery to help You fulfill Your promise.

Now, considering that God simply spoke into existence creation (by the mere words "Let there be light" light came into being from nothing), figuring out a way to allow a barren woman to become pregnant, even well past child-bearing age, probably wouldn't be too difficult a task. In fact I'd argue that, on the grand scale of God's power, it'd be but a minor display of what He is capable of doing.

God is faithful to His promises, and the way which of living which He has described in the Bible is the best way to live. And He's certainly more than capable of doing what He says. And yet so often we don't trust Him or His way. We don't trust His timing and so we rush into something we should not. We don't trust that people will come to Him if we teach everything in His Word and so we compromise the truth. Yet if we are to truly follow Him we must trust what He says.

Imagine I have a friend who offers to get me some water, and by the time He gets back I've already gotten some for myself. "Well, I didn't know if you'd actually bring the water so I got some for myself just in case." Then the friend offers to get some food, and when he comes back with lunch I've already eaten: "Well, I didn't know if you'd actually bring anything to eat so I got some for myself just in case." And every time he offers to do something I do it before he has a chance, always saying, "Well, I didn't know if you'd actually do it so I took care of it myself." How long do you think that friendship will last? That friend will quickly come to hate me because I don't trust him.

We have an opportunity to have an intimate personal relationship with the all-powerful, all-knowing God who so loves us that He knows each of us by name, has specific plans for each of us, and gave His only Son to die on the cross for us despite the fact that in comparison to the entirety of the universe we're so insignificantly small. Why sacrifice that for anything?