March 13, Scripture Reading: Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7
Is there something you’ve been seeking God for? You believe you’ve
received a promise from Him, yet you’re still waiting… and waiting… and…? Have
you ever felt like giving up on God? Maybe you didn’t hear Him correctly. Maybe
you did something that messed up the plans!
Abraham and Sarah understand what you’re going through. They waited
twenty-five for God to fulfill His promise to them, even after trying to help
Him out a bit by having a son by Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant. (Gensis 16)
Even when God comes again and confirms that Sarah will indeed bear a
child a year from then, Sarah truly doesn’t believe Him,
Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in years; it had ceased to be with Sarah as with [young] women. [She was past the age of childbearing].Therefore Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I have become aged shall I have pleasure and delight, my lord (husband), being old also?And the Lord asked Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I really bear a child when I am so old? Is anything too hard or too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time, when the season [for her delivery] comes around, I will return to you and Sarah shall have borne a son.Then Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh; for she was afraid. And He said, No, but you did laugh. –Genesis 18:11-15 (emphasis mine)
A few years ago my husband and I were teaching through the
Book of Genesis in our Life Group class on Sunday mornings, and when we came to
this passage, we learned that the same word for hard or difficult can
also be translated, wonderful or marvelous. Certainly Sarah conceiving and
bearing a son at any age would have been so very wonderful for her and Abraham.
That year, as we were teaching this chapter, The Lord had us
ask the class to share their “Too Wonderful” requests; those
requests that went beyond their wildest dreams and greatest longing and seemed
impossible to hope for apart from the Lord’s omnipotent power. He also had me
keep them listed at the bottom of our weekly prayer request sheet so that we
could pray for them continually and remember them.
Some asked for their prodigals to return, some for loved
ones to come to a saving faith in The Lord. One couple asked that she would somehow
be able to quit her job to be able to stay home and raise their daughter full
time.
In everyone’s mind that seemed to mean that her husband
either needed a better job or a raise, right? It made sense to all of us!
That was until the wife of another couple had a dream just a
week later and when she woke she told her husband about it and he agreed, and
then told the couple with the daughter.
John and Mary, who had the dream, were getting set to change
careers and move back to where they grew up. They planned to build their dream
home on the farm that John would one day inherit. In the dream they were led to
sell their current home to the couple with the daughter for only the amount of their current mortgage. This home also happened to be the couple with the daughter’s
dream home! It was everything they could have hoped for and the price of the
mortgage would cause them to see their “too wonderful” request fulfilled as
well! Isn’t that just like our Father? When He answers He always goes above and
beyond and leaves us in total awe!
Some of us are still waiting on those requests to be
fulfilled, but I’m confident they will be! Are you in the Lord’s waiting room?
You’re in good company for other great men waited years after being given a
promise by God. I think of Joseph and David…
BUT I want to encourage you, that when you are praying and
setting your “too wonderful” requests before Him, you’ll remember The Lord’s
words to Sarah:
