Inquire of the Lord
Yesterday, we left Isaac and Rebekah launching their happily-ever-after.
The next chapter in their romance starts like this:
Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless.
The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.
The babies jostled each other within her,
and she said, “Why is this happening to me?”
So she went to inquire of the Lord.
Genesis 25:21-22
Three great things happen in these two verses:
- Isaac prays on behalf of his wife.
- The Lord answers Isaac’s prayer.
- Rebekah takes her question to the Lord.
But I am struck by Rebekah’s question: “Why is this happening to me?”
When I went into preterm labor with Jonathon three months before his due date, I was in excruciating pain for hours. My stomach rebelled against breakfast, my back spasmed, my shoulders were in knots.
My only question was, “Is my baby okay?”
Maybe I’m being too harsh. I wasn’t there; I don’t know what Rebekah was experiencing that made her ask, “Why is this happening to me?”
Maybe she feared that she was miscarrying and was already imagining the stigma of being a barren woman. She knew, when she said, “I will go,” that her journey was not just to becoming a wife but also a mother.
Maybe she was simply startled that such unusual activity was happening. I well remember the night I watched Annemarie move from breech to head-down position early in her eighth month. At one point, she was all the way over to the left side of my belly. I watched in wonder at what she was doing…and, yes, at what was happening to me.
“Why is this happening to me?”
I wrestle with Rebekah’s question because it sounds so self-centered.
I wrestle with Rebekah’s question because I ask it every single day.
I wrestle with Rebekah’s question because I so easily forget to do what she did: Take it to the Lord. (Click to Tweet this.)
Try This Today:
As you’re building your “God Will Provide” family time line, recall times that you asked, “Why is this happening to me?” Add them to the time-line or start a list. How often does the answer to “Why?” show up later on down your time-line?
Your Turn!
What’s something that causes you to ask, “Why is this happening to me?”
Sometimes I ask God why I only have one child, Although my husband and I have never use the traditional kind of birth control , we still have one. Sometimes I get sad when I see others with babies.Although I know that God knows best because a whirl of activity tends to make me dizzy. WIth one child I am able to contain the activity or at least have one child going in one direction instead of having multiple children going all different directions!
I most often ask why when urgent prayers aren’t immediately answered. Right now I am asking why to a dream that has for years gone unanswered. Tough stuff. But like Rebekah I will keep turning to the Lord!
Why is this happening to me? Today I have been feeling left out. Why? I have non christian friends who are all getting together with their friends and I wasn’t invited. It hurts! But yet wisdom tells me that the conversation that would be going on would bother me, and I would wonder why I was there. God tells me to not let jealousy control me. I am special, I do belong somewhere. I have a group of Christian friends having a Bible study right this moment, that I really wanted to go to, but am unable to get to. My heart wants to be there with those girls, yet wisdom is speaking to me. Is this really a Bible study that the Lord wants me at? Is this ladies trying to belong, fit in, and put on me something that I don’t want to belong to.( this is something that I have experienced over and over and over, finally I am questioning before I jump in feet first.) Sometimes we as people hide behind play dates, bible studies ect. What we are really trying to do is convert someone to our way of thinking, not necesarrily wanting to convert people to the Lord. I’m not being judgemental, I am being honest with myself. So today I am wondering where do I fit in and why is this happening to me? I feel like I don’t fit in. I feel like this often. And every time the Lord whispers to me,” Ingrid you fit in with Me! Your heart is hungering for a belonging that only I can provide. ” Matthew 11:28, 29 just came to my mind..”.Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. V29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly i heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
I am constantly amazed at how the Lord answers my hearts needs, and all of a sudden my feelings are sorted out. I need to not allow my feelings to control me so much. Again I think, “why is this happening to me”? I don’t know, but I do know that the Lord has the answer, and I just have to stop and take the time to ask Him.