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Sarai (Like Me) Takes Matters into Her Own Hands

There's this guy in the bible named Abram, and he's married to this woman named Sarai. God made a REALLY super big promise to them. Even though they had already passed child bearing years and had not once conceived a child (this is before the days of birth control and IVF etc), God promised them that they would get pregnant and have a son, and that he would be the father of a GIANT nation that would fill the earth.

They waited. And waited..... for TWENTY YEARS. And nothing.

So Sarai decides it's time she took this promise into her own hands and "redefine" the promise.

Not good. Not good at all.

Sarai decides that what God ACTUALLY meant was that SHE (Sarai) should find a woman to give to her husband to make a baby with....

Totes not the promise.

So Sarai gives her lady's maid to Abram as a wife. And.... big surprise. They have a son.

So that causes a whole different set of problems, for another discussion another time... but what most stands out to me in this story is this:

God told them that they were wrong, and that he would still be giving them a son, even though they were REALLY super old at this time, and even though they didn't trust God and tried to take matters into their own hands.

And that is what he did. God ALWAYS keeps his promises.

So this morning as I was thinking about this little story we were telling E + M about, I started to think of all of the many promises God has given to me.... and how I am so like Sarai.... Every. Day.

So what are these promises and how do I know God has promised things to me? They are in the bible. I believe the bible is God's word, so I trust it. (Another story for another time)

I keep forgetting these promises:

God will provide for me.
Food
A Place to Sleep
Clothes to Wear (more beautiful than the wild flowers in a meadow)

God is making EVERYTHING in my life work together for my good. God is GOOD. He is providing for me every single day. He is not surprised by a single hair falling out of my head. He doesn't need me to constantly try to figure out what MIGHT go wrong with my body (I am one of the worlds biggest hypochondriacs). He isn't surprised by a missed heart beat, or a swollen lymph node.

I can rest assured today that HE is taking care of me, and I need to go back to that child like faith that my 4 year old daughter has. She doesn't doubt whether I will feed her dinner, or have a place for her to sleep, or that I will help her with whatever she needs. In fact she knows all of these things, and she also trusts God more than I do at times.

Do Not Be Anxious
25“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?g 28And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.34“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Matthew 6:25-34 

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