Monday, June 27, 2011

Genesis 21

And Sarah said, "God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me."... But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.

Sarah laughs, predicts everyone will join her, and takes offense when a teenage boy does.  His laughter was a mocking one; but he was a teenage boy - who was born as a result of the 'Sarah solution.' Where is the grace and joy over her own baby?  How can Sarah permit another person to eclipse the glory from what God has promised and so amazingly delivered to her?  

In Sarah's life, I can see this wrong choice so clearly; but where do I do the same thing?  

Where do I exchange the grace and provision of God Almighty for the maintenance of my ego or to refurbish my insecurity?  

What did Hagar have that Sarah did not trump?  Hagar was still the maidservant; albeit, the mother of one of Abe's sons - but whose fault was that?  Sarah was Abe's wife, the wife of promise, the mother of a miracle, apparently still desirable.  She had position, prestige, power and pretty; she had Abe and Isaac, the child of covenant.

What could the world have, another person offer or the enemy entice me with that could blind me to what God has already given me?  I am His maidservant; but also His daughter, the child of His choosing and desired by the King of Kings.  I am pretty sure that beats any position, prestige, power or pretty that can come my way in the natural.  

Yet, those ethereal things can captivate my imagination, my heart, my mind.  What am I thinking?  Like Sarah, I have a choice.  

Lord, help me to never stray from the cross, from what You've done for me, from who You say I am and from graciously responding to Your mercy.  Lord, I love You, I love Your grace, Your provision.  Let me not believe a lie about being satisfied elsewhere.  Do not allow my ego, my fear, my heart to direct my path, my choices, my relationships.  I need Your help to stay faithful to You; please keep my eyes on You and cause me to choose well, for Your glory's sake.

"O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above."  (Robert Robinson)

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