Pseudo: (adjective)

1.not actually but having the appearance of; pretended; false or spurious; sham.

2.almost, approaching, or trying to be.

Genesis 17

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. ² And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” ³ Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: ⁴ “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. ⁵ No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. ⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. ⁷ And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. ⁸ Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

⁹ And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. ¹⁰ This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; ¹¹ and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. ¹² He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. ¹³ He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. ¹⁴ And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

¹⁵ Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. ¹⁶ And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.”

¹⁷ Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” ¹⁸ And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

¹⁹ Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. ²⁰ And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. ²¹ But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.” ²² Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

Now, I know what you are thinking once again… Who doesn’t know the story of Abraham and Sarah? What if I told you there was a very important teaching behind this story that goes greater than just the thought of waiting for a promise? What if I told you this story actually emphasizes on not settling for anything less than God’s will for you life? Not settling for anything less than the EXACT promise He has for you?

Let’s dive into the word shall we?

Here we see the promise that the Lord made Abraham A.K.A Abram. What an amazing promise that was! Better yet, what amazing promises does the Lord have for us? Take a moment right now to just think about all the promises the Lord has made you. Those that you have seen become a reality and those you are still waiting to be fulfilled. How good is our God?

One thing I learned from these scriptures is the importance of holding on to EXACTLY what God promised. Abraham thought He would take matters into his own hands to “help” God in the process of fulfilling His promise to Abraham. How many times do we do this to God? Seriously? Take a step back and really analyze this move. Does God really need our help? to do anything? With something He promised He would fulfill? Too many times we think God needs our help. In reality, He does not need it. He able and capable of fulfilling His promises without your help. We ultimately end up delaying or ruining what the Lord is trying to do when we try to help.

Abraham thought He needed to help the Lord fulfill the promise He made him. As doubt, set in and He found it ridiculous that a man of his age and a woman of Sarah’s age would be able to conceive and give birth to this promise. How many times has God given us a promise that we doubted? Will God really use me to do that? Will He really do it? Could it be possible? Due to the doubt that grew roots in our heart we then begin to think that God needs our help. That there is something we need to do to accelerate the process so we can see it happen. My dear friends, we have missed the point of the promises of God. The point of the promises are to trust God and know that He will fulfill it without your help.

Abraham tried to get a Pseudo-Promise. A replacement promise. That is not how it works with the Lord. We can’t expect to do our own thing and then expect that God will fulfill His promise through that. The promise was through Sarah not Hagar. May times we try to fall into these situations where it looks like the promise but it is not quite the promise. Abraham was never going to see the exact promise God had for him through Ishmael.

I don’t know about you but I never want a Pseudo-promise. I want the real deal. This comes through obedience and sacrifice of your own desires. As bad as we want to see that promise fulfilled we should never take matters into our own hands. Here Abraham created a situation that should have never even occurred. It was not the Lord’s will for Hagar to bear Abraham’s child. A consequence that now He had to deal with for the rest of His life.

Brothers and Sisters I encourage you to seek divine wisdom and direction from the Holy Spirit at all times and that we may learn to be patient in the Lord. He will supply our every need and He will fulfill His promises. Don’t ever replace a the real promises of God for a Pseudo-promise because the Pseudo-promise will never be the real promise. It will never reap the benefits of the real promise of God. Take it from experience. Nothing compares to being in the will of the Lord. Always pray and ask the Lord to guide you. At the end of the day would we really want to be part of something that God never intended for us? My last advice is….

FALL BACK

Humble yourself and realize God does not need your help to make things happen!

Matthew 19:26

²⁶ But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

With Love,

Eli<3