Wanting to change your circumstances?!

Feeling like running away from your problems?!  Wanting to change your circumstances and take matters into your own hands?!  Don't do it just yet...

In my personal time with the Lord, I have been going through the Word chronologically and really digging deep in each chapter.  This week I have been studying Abram (later Abraham) in Gen. 12-16.

Gen. 12 when God calls Abram to leave his father and mother and go to a land that He will show him hits home with us.  This scripture has been part of our "story" for years.  I am always amazed at how he obeys without question despite how hard this task had to have been.

BUT Abram was sinful and didn't obey perfectly.  He {slightly} disobeys and it starts a spiral effect of problems, disobedience and ultimately he pays a large price.

God tells Abram to leave his family, yet he takes his nephew Lot.  Lot, in turn, tends to be a problem all along the way.  You all know the story….Lot and Abraham go their separate ways and Abram ends up having to rescue Lot from trouble.

Then there is a famine and instead of trusting God to provide for his daily needs, Abram takes matters into his own hands and goes to Egypt (which was not THE land God would show him).  From there, he brings home a maidservant Hagar which also ends up being a problem later on.  But God uses this in a cool way…bear with me.

Long story short, God gives Abram a promise that he would be the father of many nations and even gives him an illustration of the stars in the sky.  But 10 years later, Sarai still hasn't conceived and the long wait discouraged them and caused them to act in the flesh.  So they decide to take matters into their own hands and use their maidservant Hagar to conceive.  Hagar does conceive and then runs away from her problem because Sarai treated her with contempt.

But I learned something really neat through this…regardless of how hard Hagar had it, an angel comes to her and tells her to RETURN HOME and to submit to Sarai, the one that treated her harshly.  God didn't tell her it was ok to run away, he asked her to do something very difficult.  Oh I can't imagine!

My commentary stated that today's battle between Jews and Arabs can be traced back to Abram and his decision to "help God out".  The effects of our sin may reach far beyond what we could ever imagine. (Guzik)  Wow crazy to think that our sin could not only affect our family and children, but also thousands of year later!

Then Guzik said something that hit home to me and I had never thought of before.  He said, "If we seek to change our circumstances, we will jump from the frying pan into the fire.  We must be triumphant exactly where we are.  It is not a change of climate we need but a change of heart.  The flesh wants to run away, but God wants to demonstrate his power exactly where we have known our greatest chagrin."

I don't know who needed to hear this today, but the Lord instructed me to share this with you.  Maybe you are in a really hard situation in your marriage, with your family, at work, or all the above.  But don't run!  Allow God to show His power in your life.  Stay and submit….and watch God do amazing things.  And just like Abram…don't get impatient and take it into your own hands.  It will cause more problems that you don't know how to handle and could affect generations behind you.  TRUST HIM!

And seek to find out what change of heart He wants from YOU.  He isn't finished with you yet.