Getting to Promise

Kathy — As surely as Ishmael was a potential within the loins of Abraham, most of our “Ishmaels” are rooted within our own soul. An “Ishmael’s” strongest lure is usually that it is a logical or practical answer to a dilemma. An Ishmael represents a deceptive compromise or settlement or detour in our destiny. It is an effort to get to promise our way instead of God’s or in our time instead of His. Eccl.3:11, Amp — “He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.”