God's promises

I have started to read through the Bible this year using the Chronological Bible. I have been reading about the life of Abraham and for the first time things about his life are really jumping out at me. I mentioned the other day about God's promise to Abram (as he was named back then) and how he questioned God. Today I was reading Gen 25 and read a sentence that I must have passed over many times in my Bible reading life. Here it is... "Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. 2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah." Yeah...so what?

Here is what jumped out at me this morning. In Gen 17:17 Abram said "...will a son be born to a man a 100 years old?" Many, many years later after Sarah died Abraham, being well over a 100 years old, takes a wife and GOD blesses him with SIX children! I actually stopped and read that again, pulled out a pen and questioned in my Bible..how old was Abraham?

Is anything impossible for God? Abram back in his young age of 100 did not think God could fulfill his promise because he was too old. Well God sure proved him wrong! Why do I think that I know the formula for God's plan and will? I think I need to see all of the steps to make sure that they make sense according to my calculations. God, how could you use me now that I am in my 30's with 2 kids and a mortgage? It would have been so much easier when I was in college and carefree! How do I know what God intends to do with my life when it is totally surrendered to him!

I was thinking today when I was taking my dog for a walk (at least the dog is good for something!! :) ) I will probably never know every step of God's will for my life. In fact, all I really know is that I have this moment. When I am surrendered to God that means I don't stand up and say "ok, I think I figured your will out..thanks God talk at ya later!". It means I stay in constant surrender to him and not try to jump ahead to figure things out. This is what I want to do in 2009. Learn to stay in constant surrender to God. That sure does not sound very comfortable but I think I have learned that a comfortable life is not what God intended. If that was the case then I think Jesus would have been riding in a limo wearing $1000 sandals when he went around and preached.