Failure: Life With No Direction

Focus Passage: Gen 15:7-21

Wouldn’t be nice to know the future? You could plan your life without wasting time and energy on false starts. You could have direction in life with as little pain as possible. Yet, what if the future contained hardships, too? What if your job would end in a year or the future held a serious illness for you or your wife? Would you want to know those things as well? God lays 400 years of history before Abraham. Yes, there will be successes, but there will also be hardship and pain for Abraham’s descendants. God has a lot to teach the scraggly and selfish sons of Jacob so that they can be the great nation promised to Abraham. Yet, we can know that God’s plan is bigger than we would have ever imagined. We have to trust God to take us where we cannot get by ourselves.

Abraham’s discussion of the future begins with a question. Abraham has spent ten years of wandering up and down the countryside and yet God’s promise that he is no closer to having this land for his offspring. It isn’t that life hasn’t been good. Abraham is becoming a rich man with large flocks and many servants. He just feels like he is treading water. Promises were made by God, but nothing much is different. Unfulfilled dreams can haunt us as well. God made promises that don’t seem to be coming true. We are facing illness and feel like God has not listened to our prayers. Money is tight when we thought that God would give us what we need. We have never been hungry, but this was not what we thought would happen.

God knew that Abraham struggled because he kept looking to earthly solutions for his problems. He had already turned to Egypt not God when he was hungry and lied about who Sarah was to save himself. He looked to solve problems by himself. God takes Abraham outside and makes him look up. It is as if God is telling Abraham that he is looking to the wrong place. You need to look heavenward and see what God can do. If God can make that many stars, is it really too hard to believe that God can give you that many offspring? Likewise, looking to earth for the answers for our future will stunt our growth. We need to look to the Lord who has the ability to do anything. Look to the stars and ask “What does God want for you?”

And when you look up to the heavens, trust God. Abraham has not learned to be patient. He will still struggle and try to handle it his own way. He would fail when he took Hagar as a second wife and again when he told everyone Sarah was not his wife a second time. Yet, for the most part, he believed. He cast his lot with the Lord. When the Lord said that he should go this way, he went. He leaned his whole life toward God’s will because he believed with all his heart that God really knew what was best. Be patient and cast your lot with the Lord. Start your day asking what the Lord wants of you today. Worship him and learn from him in his word. Trust that the Lord who created the heavens knows what is best for your life. Cast your lot with him and life will have joy.

Look again up to the heavens. Do you notice how small you and I are compared to all the stars? Sometimes, we have to look beyond ourselves and realize that God is ministering to the whole world. Abraham wanted the land now, but he would have to wait because God was still working with the Amorite people. They would have to fail before God would give Abraham’s descendants the land that was promised. That would take time because God is loving and very patient.  We often ask God to speed things up so that we can what we want without considering the world around us. God is orchestrating blessings for the world around us as well as us. Even if we are ready for the miracle to begin, others may not be ready or be in place. Patience is required as he brings all the pieces together.

The real question is, “Can you take the truth?” We want direction with as little pain as possible. Here, Abraham gets the awful truth. His descendants have a lot to learn. God will take the stiff necked descendants of Jacob and will mold them into a nation. Abraham wants the land now, but his descendants will not be ready for it. Can you take the truth? Do you really want to know where you will be five or ten years from now? Are you really ready to take the responsibility that comes with that promotion or jealous rivals that will come with your success? Sometimes we are better off trusting God and just waiting for His solution. Just look at Abraham. Abraham continued to prosper during his life. The simple man who left Ur with a few cattle and sheep had a large flock and much gold and silver by this time. Know that God will take care of you as He is working His plans. Look up, believe and realize that God is working great plans for us. He is a God who can be trusted. God’s plan is bigger than you could ever imagine. Trust him to take care of you till then as well.