written by Connie Dunmyer
Ever tasted flour? How about a teaspoon of salt? Oooo – baking powder. Now there’s a “yummy treat”. Not so much, huh. But have you ever enjoyed what these ingredients, added to others, create? Like maybe a yummy cake?
Have you ever wondered if you’ve messed up so badly that God couldn’t possibly still use you, or forgive you, or have a plan for you? Have you ever thought to yourself that the problems you’re going through are because you were somehow unfaithful to God – thus, these problems are your punishment? Well, I have thought both of those things. And yes, it is true that these “ingredients” can bring about consequences. But in these two “But God”s below, God showed me that often what we see as “punishment” or a “problem”, is actually part of the recipe, part of the plan all along.
Genesis 20: 1 Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, 2 and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her. 3 But God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.” 4 Now Abimelek had not gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? 5 Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.” . . . 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her.
Genesis 21: 8 The child [Ishmael] grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” 11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
BUT GOD – PROTECTED THE PROMISE
In Genesis 20, God came in a dream to Abimelek. EVEN THO ABRAHAM LIED – God still intervened, using a dream, and protected the lineage to Jesus. God protected the Promise of Isaac.
And in Genesis 21, God told Abraham to listen to Sarah. EVEN THO THEY BOTH WENT AROUND WHAT GOD WANTED, taking matters “into their own hands”, so to speak. God told Abraham it was ok to send his son away, that He would take care of him. That the Promise was still coming – it was still in play.
Sometimes I have wondered if what I have done blocks God’s promise – blocks His will for my life and for those around me. Or like the other day, did my sadness and my fears keep Him from blessing me? I have thought that and said as much.
But here – in these two “BUT GOD”s – it would seem that I cannot thwart God’s plan completely. I may mess up some things in the process. There may be delays or consequences I hadn’t planned on. BUT GOD will still bring about His will – His promise. It’s all “baked in” to the Promise.
“If there is a single event in all of the universe that can occur OUTSIDE of God’s sovereign control, then we cannot trust Him… God has “a purpose and a plan for you (me), and God has the power to carry out that plan. It is one thing to know that no person or circumstance can touch us outside of God’s sovereign control; it is still another to realize that no person or circumstances can frustrate God’s purpose for our lives.” – Trusting God by Jerry Bridges
There have also been a lot of “bad things” that have happened to me and to our family. Things done TO us for which we had no recourse. And now, I am encouraged to look at those events in a different light. Perhaps, those “bad events” were actually “tools” or “protections”. For me? For my husband? For my children? Were they even for my very future grandchildren? I don’t know. BUT GOD was and is Protecting His Promise. His word stands true – always and forever.
Everything is not always about me. The spinning of all the planets in all the galaxies is nothing compared to what God has “spinning” in all the lives and lands and governments around the world, from the beginning of time to now, and into the future! That God would even take a second glance at me is truly most humbling. And that He would use me, use events in my life, to Protect His Promise – well, it just gives life a whole new perspective. And whatever the Promise is for me, my family, or for your family – I stand amazed that the God of the Universe would even include me as an “ingredient” in His Promise.
AND I know that because of this lesson, I can trust that even if I am “doing it wrong”, God’s will, God’s Promise will still be done. I can trust that. Even I have been “baked in” to the promise. (And so have you!)