Genesis 18:1–15 ‘Is anything too hard for the LORD?’ (v14)
Abraham has some visitors! He welcomes them with a generous spirit. But these visitors are no ordinary travellers. One of them makes an astounding promise.
Sarah – Abraham’s wife – is, like her husband, elderly, and the times of childbearing are well past. And yet a promise is made. Sarah is going to have a child. Her reaction?
She laughs! It seems impossible. But of course, with God, nothing is impossible (v14). Actually, the promise is a confirmation; Abraham has already been told, back in Genesis 15, that his descendants would become a great nation.
But there’s a time delay. So he and his wife have tried to come up with their own solution to the problem, which we read about in Genesis 16.
It seems neither Abraham nor Sarah has much faith in a promise that God has made already (Gen. 17:15–19).
When God makes a promise, we can be sure He will keep it, as He is always to be trusted. He doesn’t lie.
But when we know God has made us a promise of some sort, we can often act just like Abraham and Sarah did.
We may begin to doubt God, and we might even try to bring about the promise by our own human strength and effort.
However, we simply cannot bring about God’s promises by forcing the issue, or by trying to do it our way.
Sometimes God may seem to be asking us to wait, and that wait can feel interminable.
Still, we need to believe that He knows best, that He doesn’t make promises He won’t keep, and that He asks us to trust Him in the waiting.
A Prayer To Make:
‘Father, help me to wait on You when I feel things are impossible. Nothing is impossible to You, Lord, and I trust You. Amen.’
An Action To Take:
Has God made you a promise? Does it line up with Scripture? Are you in a period of waiting on Him? How are you finding that? Jot down any thoughts in a journal.
Scripture To Consider:
Gen. 15:1–7 & 16:1–16; Matt. 17:14–20; Mark 10:23–27
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