Everyone needs a little help now and then, don’t they? Someone to come alongside and lend a hand, get things moving?   Yes, of course! But this urge to step in and help God out isn’t a friendly nor neighborly gesture. In fact, there’s nothing noble about it.   It’s sin.

This carnal ‘reflex’, to step in and get God’s job done is a real temptation to me. Waiting, hoping and abiding are foreign concepts to my “fast-food and Amazon Prime” heart. My knee-jerk reaction to a hold-up (ie. not getting something I want) is to use all possible resources and people to get it.

It’s comforting, and yet concerning to me that I’m not alone in this battle for control.  The Bible is stuffed full of examples of men and women of old who tried to make God’s promises come to pass by their own means and in their own timing. Let’s take a look and learn.

In Genesis 16, we find Abram’s bride, Sarai, trying to help God out.  The waiting and suffering had gone on long enough!  Too many years had passed since Abram received the ‘son’ promise from God and they weren’t getting any younger!  So, like a good wife, Sarai decided to help, help God out.

Infertility wasn’t just embarrassing, but incredibly stigmatized back in that day. Thankfully, Surrogate mothers were not and so, Sarai assembled the two ingredients she needed to make their promise a reality; Abram and her Egyptian maid.  Now to mix it all together…

“Congratulations Sarai! There’s a bun in the oven! You did it. Never mind that it’s not ‘your’ oven.  Regardless, you made it happen.  No more shameful glances at family gatherings.  No more snickers or biting remarks from the other mothers at the well. You are finally going to be a mother! Nothing will take away your happiness!

But wait!  Everything “seemed” to be going great until Hagar’s baby bump started showing.  Was it just her own feelings of insecurity?  Or, was her slave giving off an arrogant air and shooting demeaning glares her way?  Did her second-class slave really think that she was better than her maitresse just because she was carrying THE baby?

Well . . .that little. . . no good. . .  Hagar!  Abram! Fix this thing!!!!!

Fast forward to the close of this Old Testament Soap Opera. Hagar did bear a son for Abram and Sarai. They named him Ishmael – and as they say, “the rest is history! “  Even so, Sarai, herself, remained barren and had to wait 13 more years until her promised baby, Isaac, was born. Ouch!  Isaac, unlike Ishmael, was conceived by the miraculous hand of God – through the Spirit and not through Sarah and Abram’s fleshly attempts.

Helping God out or should I say, pushing God out to accomplish His promises never works out in the end. In fact, our meddling disrupts and can delay His whole plan! Conversely; waiting, abiding, and trusting God deepens and strengthens our walk of faith.