In this series we are looking at some marriages in Scripture and what God was doing in the middle of their life together. Today it’s about Abram & Sarai (who God renamed Abraham & Sarah).
The story began when God spoke to Abraham:
Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land
I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.
I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.
Genesis 12:1-2
Basically God is saying: I want you to leave all that makes you comfortable and I’ll bring you somewhere else. No specifics.
The only road to the house of God’s blessing and purpose is the road of faith.
Most of us still ask God for details. He rarely complies, for two reasons: First, if we knew everything that was going to happen, we’d never move. Second, if we know the details, it doesn’t take faith.
In the New Testament, Abraham and Sarah are held up as the picture of faith. But when you read their story, you see that they made major faith mistakes. But the good news is that God took them to where they were going even though they messed up.
This is the hope of Christianity: God is greater than our weaknesses.
When life doesn’t go as expected:
1. We may fall victim to fear.
This happened to Abraham. There was a famine in the land, and, motivated by fear, he decided to move to Egypt.
When Abraham was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarah, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but will let you live. Say you are my sister so that I will be treated well for your sake
and my life will be spared because of you.”
Genesis 12:11-13
Abraham made a decision to lie because he didn’t trust God.
This happens to us all the time. We generate “what ifs” that stop us from going on. Instead of sharing an increasing faith with our spouse, we often share an increasing fear.
2. We can get ahead of God
God told Abraham and Sara that they were going to have kids. But God was taking waaayy too long to fulfill this promise! So Sarah decided to manipulate the situation.
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian
maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram,
“The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant;
perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Genesis 16:1,2
Abraham slept with Hagar, who had a son. And for years there was no end of trouble between Sarah and Hagar.
God is rarely early – but He’s never late.
3. We don’t believe God will do it for us.
It’s easy to see how Abraham and Sarah got to the place where they didn’t believe the promise any more. They had been promised a child 30 years ago; now Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. Talk about limitations…..
Why did Sarah laugh and say, “Will I really have a child, now that I am old?”
Is anything too hard for the Lord?
Genesis 18:14
God is asking: Is anything to hard for me? They had forgotten that they can trust God. Have you forgotten? Whatever situation you are in --- Is anything too hard for God?
Keep Christ in the center of your marriage and in the center of your life,
and watch what He can do.
Abraham and Sarah did many things wrong. But God was faithful because they kept returning to Him. The New Testament says they are pillars of faith.
There’s a difference between the facts and the truth.
Facts may change, but truth never changes.
Your situation may change and your expectations may not have
come to reality, and that’s the fact.
But the truth is that God is faithful to fulfill His promise.
Abraham’s body was as good as dead. Sarah’s womb was dead. Facts.
But the truth was that God gave them a promise.
And they had a son named Isaac.
Application Thoughts:
Is there a situation in your marriage/life that causes you fear? Is it triggering decisions based on that fear?
Are you tired of waiting for God to move or lead you? Are you “actively waiting” (serving and doing what He puts before you to do) – or are you tempted to manipulate the situation?
Reflect: Is there anything – anything at all – too hard for our all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving God?
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