“God, I’ve got a great idea! Please bless me in this!” Maybe you’ve prayed this sort of prayer, honestly and sincerely. And maybe your idea is an honest attempt to do something for God, to advance the cause of His Kingdom. What could possibly be wrong with that? Surely, God would want to bless those kinds of efforts, right?

Sarai had such an idea. She knew God had promised Abram would have lots of descendants. She knew she had never been able to have kids, and her biological clock had long since quit ticking. So, she figured she would give God a little help. She would allow Abram to take her servant Hagar as a second wife – after all, Hagar was young enough to have children. And in the back of her mind, Sarai thought she could keep control of the situation, that she could treat Hagar’s child as if he or she were her own. But at no time did any of them seek the Lord’s face in prayer.

But the whole situation blew up in her face. Hagar became proud that she had become pregnant. Sarai blamed Abram for going along with her plan. Abram tried to calm things down, and then overreacted by sending Hagar away into the desert. And it’s still the case that whenever we try to change God’s design for marriage – one man and one woman for a lifetime (Genesis 2:24-25) – we always get into trouble.

But there’s a larger lesson to learn here. No matter how good our intentions may be, and no matter how sincere our efforts are, if we’re not playing by God’s rules, if we’re not putting God’s plans into action we are doomed to failure. Instead of praying, “God bless my good idea,” we should instead follow the model Jesus gave us in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).

Now, that kind of prayer requires a lot of faith. Like Sarai and Abram, we may not understand how God’s will can be accomplished unless we get our way. But only if we trust God to accomplish His will in His way and on His schedule can we ever hope for a good result.

Genesis 16:1-6 (ESV)

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar.
2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.
5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!”
6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.