"The Missing Link" - 2

 "There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:" (Ecclesiastes 6:1 KJV)

  "Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, "The LORD has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her." And Abram agreed with Sarai's proposal." (Genesis 16:1-2 NLT)

 I know that I will not say what many might want to hear, but it must be said regardless. This thing that is common among men, besides the curse's on living under the sun, is the ability to really listen and obey God. If we could just follow what the Spirit within us says, making the right choices, and stop listening to other voices; then maybe we could be the real head of the household, and stop going round and round in circles. 

 If you really want to know, it is the man that is meant to be the spiritual leader in his home, nobody else. Adam was the one God gave the order to, Eve was there to help and be his companion; but Adam was the one who needed to protect his wife from being deceived by that serpent. Instead, because of his own desire to sin, he allowed it to happen, giving up his right's to be the protector and the one that would lay his life down for his wife, if need be! 

 This little issue that we see from Genesis 16, really is not much different. Abraham, or Abram during this encounter, was the one that should have made the right choice; it was his responsibility to tell Sarai to trust God; letting her know what he knew, that God was able to do things that might seem impossible to do. But instead, he gave into sin, which means, he harkened unto his wife, instead of trusting God. Not so much of a surprise, because his wife was asking him to have sex with her handmaid. 

 This is something I truly believe but is also something that requires men to be faithful to God: If we do everything in our ability to obey God and follow His commands, then our wives and children will most likely follow our lead. If we flake out and go in and out of our commitment to obey the Lord, we will be causing confusion and an unstable order in our families. 

 There is something about real leadership that makes love and security become real enough to want to hold unto; the wife needs it, and so do the children...

"So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions." (Galatians 5:16-17 NLT)