I'm focusing on her mistake here and the fact that she's never happy because she is characterized
by envy. Now think about this statement that she made in verse one, "Give me children or else I die."
Here's what's ironic about that statement. Eventually she has children and minutes after
she has children she's dead. Now stop and think about that. "Give me children or else I die."
That's pretty ironic given the fact that having children literally kills her. So it's literally
the opposite. Having children so that I do die, okay, is actually what happened. And so that goes
to show that sometimes what we feel like is just so missing from our lives and and you know if we
just had this one thing it would make us happy. You know when you get it maybe it's going to be
your downfall. Maybe it's your doom. Maybe it's your destruction. You know I wonder if she wishes
that she would have just gotten pregnant with those two kids right away and then maybe died
right away. I mean think about that. You know by God making her wait to have children he's actually
prolonging her life if she's going to die giving birth to the second child. So it's kind of ironic
that she says give me children or else I die when her second son literally is why she dies she dies
giving birth. But look at Jacob's response when she says this to him. She says to Jacob give me
children or else I die and Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel. And he said am I in God's
stead who has withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? He's like I'm not God I can't make you get
pregnant. God is the one who has withheld the fruit of the womb from you. And you know this
is an accurate statement because the Bible says that God saw that Leah was hated. He opened Leah's
womb and he did not allow Rachel to have children. This is God's choice. God has made this decision.
And the Bible does teach that God is the one who opens and closes the womb. And so if you're
unable to have children you need to just pray about it and then trust God with the outcome.
Okay now if you don't pray about it then yeah maybe you should be having children or something
like that because if we don't pray about things we can't expect God to necessarily get involved
can we? I mean if I don't pray I can't expect God to get involved in my life. Praying is when we
invite God to get involved and do something in our life and when we ask God to do something then
he's either going to do it or he's going to not do it but if we don't pray then we'll never know
will we? Because the Bible clearly says you have not because you ask not and so I'm not one of these
people who thinks oh you know God's will is just going to happen anyway and when we pray it's just
kind of an exercise that we go through no no praying is asking God for things and if I pray
to God and I ask him for something you know that actually is a meaningful act if I don't do it God's
not getting involved you have not because you ask not when I ask God for something now I'm going to
get an answer it may not necessarily be the answer that I want it may not necessarily be in the
timing that I want but God is going to answer my prayer period fact God's not just ignoring me up
and ever now if you know if I'm unsaved or if I'm out living in sin or something then yeah obviously
then God's gonna ignore me at that point but you know obviously I'm saved I'm living for God if I'm
praying to God he hears me whatsoever I ask that's what the Bible says and if we know that he hear us
whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desire and this is why the
Bible says be careful for nothing what does careful mean full of care full of worry full of anxiety
be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication let your request be made known
unto God and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds to
Christ Jesus so if I with prayer and thanksgiving and supplication make my request known to God
at that point I should be filled with peace at that point right the peace of God which passes all
understanding is now ready to keep my heart and mind to Christ Jesus because I've put the ball
in God's court once the ball is in God's court I need you to stop worrying about it now if you
haven't prayed then go ahead and worry be afraid be very afraid if you haven't prayed about it
but once you've prayed and said God this is what I'm worried about this is what I'm concerned about
this is what I need you to do in Jesus name amen at that point you know what just go about your day
smile be happy don't worry about it why because it's done consider it done it's as good as that
it's sort of like if I had a really reliable employee and I give them a job to do I don't
even need to follow up because once I give them that job I just consider it done well you know
what when we put things into God's hands we need to just consider it done just oh check that off my
list I don't even need to worry about that God's got that under control God's got that thing that's
faith now does that mean that God is just this thing where I just wish for something and it
just appears the next day or something that's not the point because you know when we pray unto God
the Holy Ghost makes intercession for us according to the will of God so he takes what we pray and
translates it into what's actually good for us and what's actually good for the will of God and for
the kingdom of God so you know I remember speaking to a friend of mine who had written down like a
prayer journal and every time they had a prayer request they'd write it in this prayer journal
and then they would revisit that years later and they'd look at that a year later and they'd go
down the list and pretty much everything was either that was answered or I don't even want
that anymore I don't even know why I wanted that because that wasn't even the right thing for me
I'm glad that didn't work out or you know something along the lines of well that didn't happen exactly
the way I asked but what I got was better you know and so that's the way it works when you pray about
things they get done period they get done but a lot of people are just impatient and they give up
you know Isaac and Rebecca they could have just said well we prayed to God and that didn't work out
and so you know we're seeking other options now you know but here's the thing about that is that
they just had to be patient for like 20 years okay and so you're not necessarily going to get your
prayers answered overnight.