by Angela Moreno

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

How easy it is to get wrapped up in our desires and think we can make our situation better on our own without God’s help? When a situation is laying heavy on our heart, we want instant results and our timing to be met.

However, in most cases, our timing isn’t going to met and our perfect time frames aren’t the same time frames God has in mind for us. When God doesn’t meet our time frame, we think He doesn’t hear us or that He just doesn’t care. So we make the decision to take matters into our own hands. We decide to become God and do His job for Him instead of waiting on His perfect timing.

The Bible tells a story of two sisters who tried to take matters into their own hands instead of waiting for God’s perfect timing.. Leah and Rachel’s story is told in Genesis 29-30. Jacob fell madly in love with Rachel and asked Rachel’s father Laban if he could have Rachel’s hand in marriage. Laban tells Jacob that he must work for seven years before Laban will give Jacob his daughter in marriage. Seven years go by and Jacob finally asks for Rachel again. That night, Jacob is given Leah as his wife instead of Rachel.

Upset by the deception, Jacob goes to Laban and asks why Laban had tricked him. Laban said that it was customary for the oldest daughter to get married first. If Jacob wanted Rachel as his wife, he would have to work for Laban for an additional seven years. Jacob agrees and works for Laban so he can also marry Rachel.

Even though Jacob is patient and works for Rachel even after the deception, the drama between the two sisters turns into an episode of Maury.

Leah knows that she is not Jacob’s first choice for a wife. She tries to earn his love by giving him children before Rachel can. God also knows that Jacob does not love Leah. Genesis 29:31 tells us: “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.” God blesses Leah with four sons. Each time Leah gave birth, she had hope that Jacob would finally love her as much as he loved Rachel.

During this time, the only thing born to Rachel was jealousy. She begged Jacob to give her children, but Jacob told Rachel that it was God who was keeping her from conceiving. Rachel decides to take matters into her own hands and gives her servant Bilhah to Jacob as his wife. Bilhah conceives two sons with Jacob.

Now it’s Leah’s turn to be jealous and take matters into her own hands. Leah had stopped conceiving at this point so she also gives her servant Zilpah to Jacob. Zilpah also conceives two sons with Jacob. Eventually Leah conceives again and has two more sons and a daughter with Jacob. Throughout this whole mess, Rachel is still childless. But God finally gave Rachel her heart’s desire and she conceived two sons with Jacob.

As this story shows, when we try to do anything on our own outside of God’s will, things get messy. Once this story is completed in Genesis 30, we have one man who now has four wives and thirteen children.

God had His hand in this story from the very beginning; He closed Rachel’s womb and let Leah bare Jacob’s children. But in fits of jealousy, Leah and Rachel add more fuel to the fire in an attempt to outdo one another instead of following the will of God. Genesis later tells us how jealousy will also play a part in the children’s life when they sell Joseph, Rachel’s first-born son, into slavery.

How does this story apply to our modern lives? I know in my case I’ve tried helping God do His job on more than one occasion.  I wanted a baby so bad that I was trying to “help” God speed up the process. I wanted to be pregnant now. I didn’t want to wait on God and His perfect timing.

Instead of turning to God’s word for answers and waiting patiently for His answer, I was turning to the Internet and man’s word. Each month that I didn’t conceive I was researching what was wrong with me. I wasn’t thinking about God and His perfect timing. I didn’t realize that He was working on my heart to strengthen my relationship with Him before He gave me the desires of my heart. In turn, God prepared my heart to be the mother that my son is going to need to lead him in the right direction throughout his life.

Put your trust in God not the things of man. All things are possible through God, but not if you have doubt in your mind and you put your trust in man. Only faith will prevail.

Until you fully understand putting your faith and trust in God, you will struggle with the mind games Satan tries to play with you. Rely only on God and He will give you the peace you seek.