Welcome to the In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, March 27th.

Have you ever heard someone say God helps those who help themselves?

Be careful against believing this subtle deception, as we're challenged to thoroughly trust God and follow his instructions exactly.

When you come to the Lord in prayer and asking him to answer a particular petition you have,

when do you usually ask him to do it? Most of the time it's right now.

And probably all of us could say at times, we've said, well, Lord, let's get with a plan now.

I mean, we're waiting a little bit too long here because we want to do what

we want to do when we want to do it. Well, there's nothing wrong with that to some degree,

except when it comes to God, it's a whole different picture. And I think all of us would admit

that the more intense our desire is for what we want, the more we're prompted to look for somewhere to take a shortcut.

That is, how do we get this done quickly? Because there must be a better way to do it.

There are areas in life in which we can save time and money by taking shortcuts. We learn

different ways to do things. But there's one area in which there's no such thing as a profitable shortcut.

And that is our relationship to God.

You just can't have shortcuts with him.

And so what I want to talk about in this message is shortcuts to the will of God.

And the passage I want to use is a very important passage because it is such a perfect example.

Now, not the example itself, but all the things that are contained in this example are perfect demonstrations of how we respond when we want something and we want it now on our schedule.

And we think maybe we know a better way to do it

than maybe the way God has planted. So I want you to turn, if you will, to the 16th chapter

of the book of Genesis. And I want us to read just a certain passage here. And then I'll

come to many passages, but look if you will, this 16th chapter,

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