This week we will explore Genesis 16:1-16, Failure According to God.
Have you ever failed?
Or perhaps a more important question...
Have you ever felt like a failure?
Deep down we all want life to work. We want to succeed in our plans. We want to feel secure, to be significant, to fulfill God's purpose for us.
But life often doesn't happen that way. Disappointments, discouragement, doubts, mistakes, fears, sorrows, confusion, conflict, loss of control...all have a way of confronting us with our own weakness and sense of failure.
Genesis 16 records the low point in the faith of Abram and Sarai.
They are tired. They are broken. They are confused.
Life is not shaping up the way that they expected. And God's promises seem like a carrot on a stick... always just out of their reach.
In their pain, Sarai decides to take matters into her own hands...while Abram grows increasingly passive and takes a backseat.
A young Egyptian servant by the name of Hagar is stuck in the middle.
In trying to fix a problem, Abram and Sarai create a mess.
Yet, even in their failures, God's faithfulness remains the same.
He is the God who sees.
He sees our deepest sorrows and failures and loves us still the same.
May God minister to the depths of our hearts like only He can do. And may we come to a deeper and deeper understanding of His incomprehensible compassion and grace!