Christian Living

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By Sarah Misch

Most of us probably heard the song "My Way" by Frank Sinatra. He boasts out that he's lived his life and "I did it my way". Sounds great, we'll plan our lives, do what we have to do, etc. etc. He goes on. I don't think it is as good as it sounds though. Here is a few examples of those from the Bible who did it their way, and the results.

Sometimes in our sense of time we think that God is working a little too slow, and maybe we need to do something to hurry things along a bit, and sometimes we just go about our life never really asking God for direction. We see that in several Old Testament stories as well. One is the story of Abraham and Sarah. God promised them a son and told Abraham that he would be a father to many nations. Another is the story of Jacob who, even though God had said before his and Esau's birth that Jacob would rule over Esau (Gen. 25:23), took matters into his own hands to deceptively get the birthright.

Abraham just decided that God was taking too long. A son was promised, he and his wife was not getting any younger, so they came up with a plan to try and force this promise to finally happen (Gen. 16). But, it backfired on them. The son, Ishmael, he had with Hagar would not be the son of the promise, and it would be 10 more years before he heard from God again. Now at the age of 99 and Sarah 89 God affirmed again His promise to Abraham (Gen.17), and Abraham believed. A year later at the age of 100 and 90, Sarah gave birth to Isaac (Gen.21). The promise of a son had been fulfilled. With them taking what they seen as a problem into their own hands by having a son through Hagar they may have actually delayed what God wanted to do in their lives, and they caused an issue with the nation that would come from Ishmael that they are still dealing with today.

Jacob, on the other hand, never really took the time to ask God's direction. He just reacted. He wanted the birthright, so instead of realizing that God already planned for him to be 'in charge', he just went on with his own plan to get what he wanted. First, he gets Esau to sell his birthright for a bowl of soup. Now this does show that Esau didn't think much of his birthright, but it was still conniving of Jacob. Then on his father's death bed he planned with his mother to deceive his father and steel the blessing, and it worked. But, it backfired. His brother was angry enough to kill him, and Jacob had to run to the wilderness. Now Jacob ends up getting deceived by his father-in-law and his own sons later. Jacob had problems throughout his life, and many of them came from not asking God for direction. (Gen. 25-50)

These stories teach us to seek and wait for God's direction. We can see through them that in trying to do things their way many blessings were delayed or lost, and that it actually caused a lot of trouble. We must realize that God is working things out in the best possible timing. If something hasn't happened yet it is either not the right time for it or isn't God's will. Like Jacob, we can cause a lot of problems in our lives by not going to God and asking Him what needs to be done and how. Over all when we try to do things our way we usually make a mess of it. But, when we give it to God and do it His Way then we open our lives to His blessings. We know that it all will work out, because God is the one steering the ship - He doesn't fail.

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