God’s Plan > My Hands
impatience with
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not borne him a child, but she had an Egyptian slave woman whose name was Hagar.
So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please have relations with my slave woman; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
And so after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave woman, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife.
Then he had relations with Hagar, and she conceived; and when Hagar became aware that she had conceived, her mistress was insignificant in her sight.
So Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I put my slave woman into your arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was insignificant in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
But Abram said to Sarai, “Look, your slave woman is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight.” So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence. —Genesis 16:1-6 NASBNow the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die!
For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. —Genesis 3:1-6 NASBNow he waited for seven days, until the appointed time that Samuel had set, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattering from him.
So Saul said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering.
But as soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him.
But Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “Since I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come at the appointed time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash,
I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the Lord.’ So I worked up the courage and offered the burnt offering.”
But Samuel said to Saul, “You have acted foolishly! You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, for the Lord would now have established your kingdom over Israel forever.
But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” —1 Samuel 13:8-14 NASB
when we don’t
remain
“Now Joshua got up early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. Then the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew the trumpets; and the armed men went ahead of them, and the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord, while they continued to blow the trumpets.
So the the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the campy; they did the same for six days.” —Joshua 6:12-13 NASB
“On the seventh day they got up early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same way seven times; only on that day did they march around the city seven times.” —Joshua 6:15 NASB
“And at the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.” —Joshua 6:16 NASB
“So the people shouted, and the priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, everyone straight ahead, and they took the city.” —Joshua 6:20 NASB
“So let’s not get tired of doing good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” —Galatians 6:9 NLT
we must exercise
“They all went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. Now it came about after the seven days, that the waters of the flood came upon the earth.” —Genesis 7:9-10 NASB
Discussion Questions
Share a personal experience where you had to trust in God’s plan even when you didn’t see immediate results. How did this experience impact your faith, and what lessons did you learn from it that you can apply in your life today?
In Genesis 16:1-6, we see how Sarai and Abram struggled to trust God’s plan for their family when they didn’t see immediate results. What lessons can we draw from their experience about the challenges of waiting on God’s timing? How can we apply these lessons to our own lives when we face similar situations?
Both Genesis 16 and Joshua 6 show us that trusting God’s plan often requires patience and perseverance. How do you personally handle moments of waiting and uncertainty when it comes to God’s plan for your life? What strategies or principles can we derive from these passages to help us maintain trust in God’s plan, even when we don’t see immediate results?
In both Genesis 3:1-6 and Genesis 16:1-6, we see instances where individuals made choices that had significant consequences. What common themes or patterns can we identify in these passages that led to these mistakes? How can we apply the lessons learned from these stories to make better choices and avoid similar pitfalls in our own lives?