Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children, but she had an egyptian maidservant named Hagar. So she said to Abram, the lord has kept me from having children, so go sleep with my maidservant, and perhaps I can build a family through her. Abram agreed to what Sarai said. Genesis 16 one two the Bible is full of examples of people who tried to help God out. Abram and Sarai are two of them. God had promised Abram an heir, but his wife Sarai, was barren and had no children. Being stressed out about the situation, the pair came up with a plan to help God make good on his promise. When most of us get stressed out about things, we often turn to little Debbie to see us through. But Abram and Sarai had a different idea. Sarai wanted Abram to take her servant Hagar to be his concubine, wife and essentially a surrogate mother. The scheme was a bad idea from the start and only got worse once Hagar became pregnant. It soon became clear that this was not God's plan, and trying to help him out was not a good idea at all. It all worked out in the end, but not without a whole lot of drama, harsh words, finger pointing, and hurt feelings, all of which were unnecessary and which would have been avoided had Abram and Sarai simply trusted God. Ironically, Abram, known better by the name Abraham, is held up in scripture as a man of great faith. But like us, his faith was not always as strong as it should have been. It's not that any of us think that God doesn't keep his promises or that he will forget to take care of us. It's just that we sometimes forget to let him, opting instead to either take matters into our own hands or to try in some lame way to help God out with his promises. What is the universal remedy for a faith that is less than it ought to be? A lot more prayer, a lot more Bible, and a lot more self discipline. Hey, a little Debbie snack cake won't hurt now and then, but even that is no substitute for really trusting the Lord.

This has been your thought for the day with Steve Burkham, pastor of community Christian Church in Stockton, California. If you have questions or comments for Pastor Steve, please send them to Daily thoughtspodcastmail.com. Have a great day, and we hope you'll join us tomorrow as Pastor Steve opens God's word to bring us another thought for the day.