WHY DO WE SO SELCOME SEE GOD DO GREAT THINGS? Often in our spiritual lives, we become content with second-best plans.
- Genesis 17:16, 18.
- Abraham had so come to accept his Plan B (having Ishmael by Sarah’s maidservant) that when God speaks of the fulfillment of His original great promise (v. 16) Abraham doesn’t grab at it at all. In fact, he simply asks that Ishmael might be the one who is blessed (v. 18).
- He privately scoffs at God’s offer even as he is worshiping.
- In v. 17, it says he fell facedown – that’s a position of worship. He knew to bow down to the presence of God. Yet even as he does that outward action, he “laughed and said to himself” that there was no way that was going to happen.
- Sometimes we go through the public motions of devotion – reading the Bible, going to church, saying “Amen” – while we privately have given up on seeing God fulfill His great promises.
- We’ve come to accept a second-best answer.
- We become content with our second-bets plans and lose sight of God’s larger vision.
- We settle.
- Often, it reaches the place where even if we are offered something better, we don’t jump at it.
- Abraham here doesn’t respond to God’s message by saying, “Really? You’re going to do that?” or “I believe that You can bring that about!” or “Let’s go!”
- Instead, He just wishes that God would bless the back-up plan that he had come up with and leave it at that.
ONE REASON WE SETTLE: We get tired of waiting.
- Genesis 12:1-4; Genesis 17:24-25.
- Abraham was 75 years old when he originally heard from God back in chapter 12. He is now 99 years old. (Verse 24 tells us that. In v. 17 is apparently just ballparking his age for the sake of effect.)
- That’s essentially a quarter-century. That is a long time to wait.
- It’s been 13 years since Ishmael was born (v. 25). That’s a long time to shift your affections from God’s original promise to the flesh-and-blood child that you already have. In one sense, it’s hard to begrudge Abraham for his affection for Ishmael. I expect the boy was the apple of his eye, but it caused him to lose sight of God’s original promise.
- There comes a point where we just want it to be over.
- There comes a point where we just want to be done.
- We’ve lost our passion and desire to see all that God originally offered. We’re just tired of waiting and want some resolution.
RAISING THE BAR: We should hold out for total fulfillment of God’s promise.
- Genesis 17:16; Matthew 7:9-11; Matthew 8:5-10.
- We need to have sufficient faith to expect God to “fully fulfill” what He has said He would do.
- We need to believe that if God promised it He can bring it about.
- This is not insulting toward God. This is honoring Him.
- It says, “I believe You are capable.” It says, “I believe You are strong.” It says, “I believe You can.”
- I’m reminded of the gospel story of the centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5-10). The centurion said that he believed Jesus to be a man of authority, like himself, and that Jesus merely needed to say the word and it would happen. Jesus was impressed, saying He hadn’t seen that kind of faith in Israel.
- What impressed Jesus? It was the fact that centurion took for granted that Jesus was a man of authority and when He spoke things would happen.
- This is part of not settling. We need to believe, even when we’ve had to wait a while, that Jesus is still fully capable of doing what He said.
- Another key idea that we need to hold onto here comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
- In Matthew 7:9-11, Jesus talks about the good heart of God. He asks, If a human father is generous with his kids, how much more generous is your all-holy, all-pure, all-loving Heavenly Father going to be?
- This is put to the test when we wait. We struggle with the waiting and begin to wonder whether God is going to come through for us.
- We have to hold onto the certainty of His good heart.
- We sometimes have this happen without fully realizing how much we’re diminishing our faith in God.
- In business language, this is called “vision creep.”
- That is the idea that the original vision slowly gets diminished and altered as problems, obstacles, and difficulties are encountered.
- You start out in a business to provide “world-class customer service” and end up satisfied if you have an occasional day when there are no customer complaints.
- You start out wanting to provide an incredible experience for your customers and end up satisfied if you’re making money.
- Similar things can happen in churches and Christians’ lives.
- A church starts out with a vision to impact their entire county for Christ and ends up satisfied with the church continuing to have some nominal attendance growth each year.
- A Christian starts out wanting to see their entire family saved and ends up satisfied that they all come with her to church on Mother’s Day.
- One of the ways I try to combat this is to write down the original vision on my prayer list.
- I have to come back again and again to what God said He intended to do so that I don’t settle for less. It’s hard to hold to that high vision. It’s easy to settle for any movement in that direction. But I don’t want just any movement – I want to see total fulfillment.
- Lowered expectations can happen just by allowing yourself to forget or lose sight of what He originally promised. It’s not always an intentional decision; it can just be a gradual creep.
- This brings up the essential role of faith.
- Faith is the evidence of things not seen. This is important to remember as we go through lengthy times when nothing (visible) happens with regard to the promise that God has made to us.
- Why does God work this way? Why doesn’t He just immediately fulfill all the promises that He’s made?
- One reason is that faith is honoring to God. In fact, it is one of the most honoring things to Him. Why? Because when we praise Him with the answer in our hands, we are essentially praising Him for what He’s done, for the gift. But when we praise Him even though we don’t have the answer yet, we are praising Him for who He is. This is a higher form of praise – it is praise of His character rather than praise of His generosity. It is us saying, “I love You for who You are” not just “I love You for what You’ve done for me.”
- If you see a great move from God, someone had great faith.
- I’m reminded of the story of Jacob wrestling with God (Genesis 32:26). Jacob told God, I won’t let go of You unless You bless me. That’s a fitting picture for us: wrestling with God yet unwilling to let go until we receive from Him.
- Am I willing to stay in the battle until I get my blessing from God? Am I willing to pursue this until I see the total fulfillment?
- God can fulfill His promises. Always.
- I wonder over the course of our Christian lives what we’ve left on the table.
- What has God been willing to do for us and we’ve not had the faith to receive it?
- What has God been willing to do for us and we settled for less?
- What miracles, answers, and insights have we missed out on, not because God was unwilling to give it but because we didn’t really want it?
- There are promises from God that we essentially laugh off.
- There are promises from God that we don’t receive because we just shrug our shoulders and smirk and move on.
- We need to expect great things from God.
EXAMPLES OF SCRIPTURES WHERE WE SETTLE:
1. Increasing Christlikeness.
- 2 Corinthians 3:18.
- We are to be looking, loving, and living more like Christ.
- This is not an eternity truth – this is a here-and-now reality. We can become like Christ.
- Yet so often we settle for staying where we’re at.
2. Never giving into sin.
- 1 Corinthians 10:13.
- Do we believe that we never have to give into sin? I certainly understand that there will inevitably we times when we falter, but we have come to believe that it’s normal and acceptable for us to give into sin.
- He provides us with a way out.
- Yet so often we settle for wallowing in our sin.
3. Church harvest.
- Matthew 9:36-38.
- Do we believe that an abundant harvest is His will? Do we believe that if we’re not seeing it then we’re doing something wrong?
- Yet so often we settle for an occasional baptism..
4. Power through prayer.
- John 14:12.
- Do we expect to see such great things through God’s power?
- Yet so often we settle for calling anything positive an “answer” to prayer.
