Can We Make A Deal?

“W

hat’s behind door number one?”  That question and the familiar voice emanating from the big console television in our den told me that one of my favorite game shows was playing.  For years, “Let’s Make A Deal”, starring Monty Hall, dominated the air waves.  I loved to watch it as a kid, just to see how people would react to pressure and the ever increasing temptation to let go of a sure thing for something uncertain.

At times I found myself hoping they would make the deal, especially if all they were holding was a box of chocolates while there before them was a curtain or a door.  Now that door could have been hiding a car, or an old mule.  The box could have contained chocolates or several hundred dollars rolled up inside.  The point was to get the contestant to trade or keep what they had in hand.  Sometimes refusing to trade was a good thing and sometimes not trading was the worst mistake any one could make.

In addition to some of the zany deals Monty offered were the zany costumes of the contestants.  In order to get noticed, people disguised themselves and masqueraded as fairy tale characters, professionals, and all manner of odds and ends.  The more outlandish the disguise, the more ingenious the costume, and the more clever the ruse, the more likely it was that a contestant would be chosen to play the game.  At that point, they would embark on a series of deals leading up to the ultimate deal of the evening in which three contestants were asked to give away their prizes in hopes of getting something in return.

Sounds sort of like the Christian life at times, doesn't it?  We find it so difficult to take God at his word and to trust that he has our best interest at heart.  When he is dealing with us, when he wants to work in our lives, we have a hard time letting go of our present circumstances in order to accept something else from his hand.  We aren't sure that what he has is better than what

we currently hold in our hand.  We know in our heads that God loves us, but in our hearts, we don’t really trust him.  We believe it would be so much better if he dealt with us on our terms instead of us dealing on his.

This last picture is nowhere more evident than in the life of Abraham.  Yes, Abraham!  The great patriarch of faith found himself in a situation where he tried to bargain with God.  Although God had promised Abraham a son, Sarah remained barren.  She thought that she could have children through her servant Hagar, and Abraham’s first son, Ishmael was born.   But this was not God’s plan.

When Abraham was 99 years old, just one year before Isaac’s birth, he made the following statement from Genesis 17:18 to God: "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"  In other words, Abraham was saying, “Can we make a deal, here?  Can’t Ishmael fulfill your promise?  Can’t it be some other way?”  God’s answer was a resounding “No!”  God’s promise was that Abraham would have a son with Sarah and he would be the child of the promise.  There would be no ifs, ands, buts, or deals about it!

Can you identify with Abraham today?  Do you find it so very hard to let go of what you have in order to accept something else from God?  If so, then I fully understand where you are!  But the fundamental truth is this, God has plans for us, plans we can’t even imagine.  The things he wants us to have are so far superior to anything we possess that we would be foolish to miss out on an opportunity such as this.  But God will not force us to accept anything from him.  Instead, he wants us to trust him, to come to the realization that he only offers his best to us.

Can we make a deal with God?  Not hardly!  And if we did, could we hold up our end of the bargain?  Think about it!!