SCRIPTURE:
8 When Isaac grew up and was about to be weaned, Abraham prepared a huge feast to celebrate the occasion. 9 But Sarah saw Ishmael—the son of Abraham and her Egyptian servant Hagar—making fun of her son, Isaac. 10 So she turned to Abraham and demanded, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son. He is not going to share the inheritance with my son, Isaac. I won’t have it!”
11 This upset Abraham very much because Ishmael was his son. 12 But God told Abraham, “Do not be upset over the boy and your servant. Do whatever Sarah tells you, for Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted. 13 But I will also make a nation of the descendants of Hagar’s son because he is your son, too.”
Genesis 21:8-13
OBSERVATION:
Every day of life is a blessing, but there are just some days that are so life-changing that you never forget. For me, one of those days was in elementary school. I was almost done typing out a long essay on Microsoft Word when I accidentally highlighted the whole essay and deleted it. Hours of work gone in an instant. And I was devastated. But then, my life was changed. My teacher, who could see the distress on my face, came over and taught me a life-changing skill I still use to this day: Command-Z. She placed her thumb on the command key, her pointer on the Z key, and pressing them in concert with one another, my whole essay reappeared in an instant! It was a miracle! Command-Z undid my mistake and recovered everything that was once lost. It changed my life!
While there is a Command-Z on computers, there’s no Command-Z for life. We only get one chance to live it right, and if we make a mistake, we have to live with the consequences, as we see unfold in Sarah’s life.
In Genesis 21, God fulfills His promise of giving Sarah and Abraham a son––Isaac––in their old age. However, 14 years earlier, Sarah did not believe that God would fulfill His promise to her, for it seemed too absurd. A child at the age of 90? Sarah thought it was impossible. So in her unbelief, she took matters into her own hands and told her husband Abraham to sleep with her servant named Hagar. And Hagar and Abraham bore a son named Ishmael.
When Isaac was born, Ishmael made fun of his half-brother. And this made Sarah mad “so she turned to Abraham and demanded, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son. He is not going to share the inheritance with my son, Isaac. I won’t have it!” (Genesis 21:10). The sad thing about Sarah’s reaction is that this was all her fault. She was mad at Ishmael, and Hagar, and Abraham about the issue of inheritance, but the reality is that she created the issue. It was her idea, her instruction, and her fault that Ishmael was even born. And unfortunately, there was no Command-Z for her mistake. She had to suffer the consequences.
APPLICATION:
Have you ever found yourself in that place before? When you realized you had made a terrible mistake and wished you could just Command-Z because of the consequences? I think we all do. We’re all human, we all have made mistakes, and we all face times in life where we wish we could just take it all back. But we can’t. The reality is that God gives us the gift of free will and we are responsible for our actions regardless of the consequences. You can’t Command-Z your mistakes. So what then should you do when you find yourself in this situation?
- Don’t be controlled by your emotions.
Your emotions are information, not inspiration. They are meant to point you towards the problem, not propel you to fix it. The first thing God tells Abraham to do is to cool down. Genesis 21:11-12 says “this upset Abraham very much because Ishmael was his son. But God told Abraham, “Do not be upset over the boy and your servant.” In your mistakes, God sees your emotions and feels your pain––and He loves you far too much to allow you to be controlled by them. Vent to God, tell Him what you’re going through, then let Him speak to you. Prayer is a dialogue, not a monologue. Don’t hog the mic from God; let Him speak to you. When you wish you could Command-Z your life, make room to hear His voice and give Him the opportunity to calm you down and get you back into a space of clear discernment uncharged by emotions.
- Ask God for help.
There is nothing too difficult that God can’t solve. And oftentimes, when you only see two paths forward, God forges a third that you didn’t even think was possible. When presented with Sarah’s problem, Abraham thought that there were only two choices: choose Sarah and Isaac or Hagar and Ishmael. However, when He asks God for help, God provides Abraham with a third option: honor all of them. “Do whatever Sarah tells you, for Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted. But I will also make a nation of the descendants of Hagar’s son because he is your son, too,” (Genesis 21:12-13). God loves all of us, and His will is that all of us would come to know Him. When you ask God for help, He is able to rewrite the story, defy logic, and find a solution that works for the good of everyone. But you need to ask Him for help. When you wish you could Command-Z your life, humbly and desperately ask God for help, and He will always come through for you.
- Let God fix your mistakes
You don’t have the power to fix your problem, but God does. As King Solomon, the wisest man in history once wrote, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6). Stop trying to be the savior. Trusting in yourself is what got you in this mess in the first place. But as Solomon says, when we trust in God and surrender to Him, HE makes our paths straight. You are not the savior––but you know the Savior. Let the Savior save you. You may not be able to recover what was lost, but God can still chart a greater path forward. Let Him make a way for you. And when you let Him, He will forge a future you never thought was possible. When you wish you could Command-Z your life, stop trusting in yourself and start trusting in God.
There’s no command-Z for life, but you don’t need one, because you have God on your side. He’s waiting to help you because He loves you. Let Him love you. Invite Him into your situation, let Him fix your mistakes, and let Him make impossible solutions possible in your life.
PRAYER:
Jesus,
You are my Savior. I repent for my mistakes, for the times I trusted in myself over trusting in You, and for my shortcomings in trying to solve the problems I created without You. Forgive me. I ask for your help in fixing my mistakes and renovating my life. I need You and I yield to You. Thank You that You are creating new paths I never thought was possible and forging a future for me that I don’t deserve. I love You, Lord. Thank You for loving me and for saving me, always.
In Your name I pray,
Amen
