August 10, 2026

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Then the angel of the Lord told her, ‘Go back to your mistress and submit to her.^‘  The angel added, ‘I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.’” (Genesis 16.9-10)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

One spiritual truth is overt and obvious. The other must be viewed in context to be reminded. Both truths define for each one of us as mighty ones of God that God is sovereign. Without understanding the truth of right relationship between creation and God, especially between humankind and God, there can be no realized blessing nor authentic understanding. A relationship with God happens. A right relationship with God is intentional. Such a relationship is identified by the biblical term righteousness. In 2 Corinthians 5.21, Paul wrote “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” In it not by our works that we are made righteous. Our works become the demonstrations of our understanding of being in right relationship with God through Jesus Christ. First, we are in right relationship with God because of the sacrifice which Jesus made on the cross (including the sacrifice He made in getting to the cross by coming to earth from Heaven, forsaking the throne and His crown for a manger and a cross). I pray you understand what it is that I am saying here. The two truths mentioned at the start are at work here.

The first truth is that of submission. This has to be one of the most difficult words to hear in any language. Seemingly the further we travel in time away from the beginning of all life, the more vulgar that word sounds. We could break it down simply and in our religious orientation as Christ followers get the full gist of the word’s meaning. The prefix “sub” means under, secondary, or less than. Most people do not want to feel they are second to anything, under anyone’s purview or authority or less than all they can be. This was part of the lie which the Serpent told Eve in the Garden. The accusation against God was that His will was to make human beings not only less than Himself but less than they could ever be as a human being. The desire for more, better, greatness, power, authority and most of all autonomy is a part of the human ego. However, just because we “can do a thing” doesn’t mean we “should do a thing.” True power, character, integrity and authority is best realized when it is “under” control. Sadly, far too many people in the world speak against a god, and especially Almighty God, because they want to be their own god, their own master, their own authority who defines their own life and success not for a day or a week or a year but for always. We certainly can be more than we are as we grow more into who we are to become. However, this means putting ourselves in a submissive position even to ourselves. We must admit that we cannot do all things. We may be able to do more than we do, but we lack the ability to do all things by the very nature of our being. There are something we cannot change regardless of the efforts of those who believe otherwise. Jesus is the epitome of submission. He surrendered the throne and a crown to become a man on earth born as a baby to a human mother and lived under the authority of a step-father.. He also was submissive to the cross understanding the will of His Father was for the sake of saving His people from a fate worse than death. In His crucifixion, Jesus demonstrated restraint (He could have let Himself down from the cross as the vile thief ranted and railed.) Jesus demonstrated humility (accepting the judgment of humans who did not understand nor would they understand the true will of God for their own lives much less His own.) Jesus was strongest at His weakest (battered, bruised, stripped, beaten, spat upon, whipped, scourged, stabbed, pierced, wounded and made to bear His own cross). Even His teaching on righteousness, whose basis is love, was built on the terms of submission (come as a child, confess your guilt, love your “everybody-friend, neighbor, enemy, stranger, sick, destitute, yourself and God,” seek first the Kingdom of God, endure persecution: follow the Beattitudes, and these are just a few examples.) Be we, like Saul of Tarsus, act more like a “man on a mission” to prove ourselves as one to be called worthy in the eyes of others. He was so determined to prove Himself to the Scribes, Pharisees and Sanhedrin, that he went on a mission not from God but against God’s Son. He believed he was honoring God by killing those who followed the One who said He was God’s Son. That is, he was until he met the Son of God on the Damscus Road and got knocked off his high horse and blinded. Saul ended up in Damascus being led by the hand to one who would lead him to redemption in Jesus Christ as Lord. After that, he, too, lived a life of submission.

This was the directive given to Hagar who was escaping the wrath of Sarai’s jealousy which she birthed herself because she would not be in submission. Sarai victimized herself and used Hagar and Abram as the scapegoats in order to blame God instead of believing. She would not submit herself to trust in the Lord. Her lack of trust created division and bitterness. Before Joseph ever said it, Sarai would have to live it: “What you intended for harm, God has used to do good.” It would not have been easy for Hagar. Yet, what was she to do as a single mother in the wilderness. She could have refused to submit to the will of God espoused by the Angel of the Lord and become food for the jackal and carrion. She could have submitted and returned to show a passive defiance of Sarai but a radical obedience to God. It was an overt act of a spiritual truth which Hagar demonstrated: she submitted to the will of her mistress to whom she had pledged to do a thing- bear Abram an heir.

(I will reflect on the second spiritual truth in these verses tomorrow. Consider well the lesson God desires for us to learn to be all we can be as His beloved children and heirs of the Kingdom.)

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness endeavor, but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.