And Abraham said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!" God said, "No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year."
Genesis 17:18-21
I cannot help but note here that, as far as His covenant goes, God squarely rejected Ishmael despite Abraham's plea. He did bless Ishmael and also promised that nations would come from him, though to be fair He also told Ishmael's mother that her son would live in conflict (cf Genesis 16:12). However, Ishmael was not to be the son of the promise, the son in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Why is this? I firmly believe that it is because Ishmael was the product of the flesh--Sarah and Abraham's attempt to "help" God fulfill His promise.
I am challenged by this in a very personal way. How many times have I tried to help God... as if the Almighty could truly benefit from my clumsy effort? Sometimes I may do it out of a fear that if He doesn't come through, God will lose face--a rather silly fear, really, when you think about whether or not the Almighty really needs the approval and admiration of mankind! At other times, my helpful nudges are really thinly disguised impatience. Like Abram and Sarai, I find that God does not often work on my timetable, and if there is a promise, I become antsy to make it happen.
There are a dozen or so other reasons, but when I look closely I find that underlying it all is my old arch-enemy: unbelief. If I really believed God, would I feel this pressure to try to make things happen? Of course not! And of course, when I try to fulfill God's promises with my efforts, I may do some wonderful things, but they are wonderful things that He ultimately rejects, though He may bless their outcome. He is far less interested in my careful efforts or my striving than He is in simple obedience. And obedience sometimes means, "Get a move on," but at other times it means wait.
More than this, however, is the haunting realization that my efforts to help God along often cost much. In the case of Abram and Sarai, it caused conflict in their marriage, conflict between a woman and her servant, conflict between Abram's sons, and decades and decades of conflict in the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac. Not much good was done, really, and a whole mess created. And in the end, despite it all, God still rejected Ishmael.
This January I find that I am spending more time in reflection than in years past. In some ways, it is a pivotal year for me, though I will get into that in another post. Mostly, however, I am finding an increasing desire to get this Christian walk right. After all, if it is really the only thing that will outlast my physical body, should it not be the most critical item on my daily agenda? Though I have made many mistakes and failures and though I am not expecting perfection, I do believe that I can consider myself "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ," as Paul wrote--and that I can live that way. For years, I think I have focused on my foibles and failures, and while I probably still will pay them homage, I no longer want to stay fixed there. My desire is to live the rest of my life bringing attention away from me--whether I am in victory or defeat--to the One in Whom ultimate victory is achieved.
It is, after all, a denial of His power when I stay stuck in my defeat as well as when I arrogantly try to assist Him in accomplishing His will using my own methods. I want to mention trials or failures only with the express purpose of exalting the One Who lives above them and draws me and all His followers ever onward, and I desire to honor Him as ever capable and faithful in His abilities. This means absolute surrender. This means total submission in such a way that I no longer either set my mind on the flesh nor acting according to flesh-borne ideologies, but instead I am simply and totally focused on and following the guidance of the Spirit of God.
For I see that all the works of the flesh--whether well-intentioned or no--are rejected by God. I cannot help Him. I cannot even help myself. But He has done all that is needed to help me, and I firmly believe that I can walk a closer walk with Him with each passing day and year, walking further from my flesh and leaving it behind to become more one with the Spirit of God. Is that not the purpose of a journey--to draw closer to the destination? My destination and sole motivation is Him and Him alone.
This really came home to me recently when I was talking with my son. He has tried so hard to be good, but he had not, at the time of our discussion, recognized his inherent inability to be good. Only God is good, and only in submitting to Him, abiding in Him, can we hope to produce fruit worthy of His Kingdom. It is actually His work in us producing it and nothing at all that we can accomplish though we expend every ounce of effort and exertion that exists in our flesh. I realized as I spoke that I, too, have spent many years and much effort in a struggle to be a good Christian. In the end, I find, my Father rejects my exertions and simply waits on me to come to Him, rest in Him, abide in Him, and obey. He will do the rest. It is only the efforts of His Son that are acceptable; it is only by abiding in His Son that I can produce any acceptable fruit. It will take setting both my mind and my will firmly on Him and then simply following. Obeying. Letting go of any pretense or belief that I can do these things in my own strength. For when I am weak, then He is strong.
I am challenged by this in a very personal way. How many times have I tried to help God... as if the Almighty could truly benefit from my clumsy effort? Sometimes I may do it out of a fear that if He doesn't come through, God will lose face--a rather silly fear, really, when you think about whether or not the Almighty really needs the approval and admiration of mankind! At other times, my helpful nudges are really thinly disguised impatience. Like Abram and Sarai, I find that God does not often work on my timetable, and if there is a promise, I become antsy to make it happen.
There are a dozen or so other reasons, but when I look closely I find that underlying it all is my old arch-enemy: unbelief. If I really believed God, would I feel this pressure to try to make things happen? Of course not! And of course, when I try to fulfill God's promises with my efforts, I may do some wonderful things, but they are wonderful things that He ultimately rejects, though He may bless their outcome. He is far less interested in my careful efforts or my striving than He is in simple obedience. And obedience sometimes means, "Get a move on," but at other times it means wait.
More than this, however, is the haunting realization that my efforts to help God along often cost much. In the case of Abram and Sarai, it caused conflict in their marriage, conflict between a woman and her servant, conflict between Abram's sons, and decades and decades of conflict in the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac. Not much good was done, really, and a whole mess created. And in the end, despite it all, God still rejected Ishmael.
This January I find that I am spending more time in reflection than in years past. In some ways, it is a pivotal year for me, though I will get into that in another post. Mostly, however, I am finding an increasing desire to get this Christian walk right. After all, if it is really the only thing that will outlast my physical body, should it not be the most critical item on my daily agenda? Though I have made many mistakes and failures and though I am not expecting perfection, I do believe that I can consider myself "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ," as Paul wrote--and that I can live that way. For years, I think I have focused on my foibles and failures, and while I probably still will pay them homage, I no longer want to stay fixed there. My desire is to live the rest of my life bringing attention away from me--whether I am in victory or defeat--to the One in Whom ultimate victory is achieved.
It is, after all, a denial of His power when I stay stuck in my defeat as well as when I arrogantly try to assist Him in accomplishing His will using my own methods. I want to mention trials or failures only with the express purpose of exalting the One Who lives above them and draws me and all His followers ever onward, and I desire to honor Him as ever capable and faithful in His abilities. This means absolute surrender. This means total submission in such a way that I no longer either set my mind on the flesh nor acting according to flesh-borne ideologies, but instead I am simply and totally focused on and following the guidance of the Spirit of God.
For I see that all the works of the flesh--whether well-intentioned or no--are rejected by God. I cannot help Him. I cannot even help myself. But He has done all that is needed to help me, and I firmly believe that I can walk a closer walk with Him with each passing day and year, walking further from my flesh and leaving it behind to become more one with the Spirit of God. Is that not the purpose of a journey--to draw closer to the destination? My destination and sole motivation is Him and Him alone.
This really came home to me recently when I was talking with my son. He has tried so hard to be good, but he had not, at the time of our discussion, recognized his inherent inability to be good. Only God is good, and only in submitting to Him, abiding in Him, can we hope to produce fruit worthy of His Kingdom. It is actually His work in us producing it and nothing at all that we can accomplish though we expend every ounce of effort and exertion that exists in our flesh. I realized as I spoke that I, too, have spent many years and much effort in a struggle to be a good Christian. In the end, I find, my Father rejects my exertions and simply waits on me to come to Him, rest in Him, abide in Him, and obey. He will do the rest. It is only the efforts of His Son that are acceptable; it is only by abiding in His Son that I can produce any acceptable fruit. It will take setting both my mind and my will firmly on Him and then simply following. Obeying. Letting go of any pretense or belief that I can do these things in my own strength. For when I am weak, then He is strong.
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
Romans 8:6-9
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