This past week I've been sick and at times super weak, every time I'd go to write this post it would never turn out like I hoped, so here I go. Hopefully this reveals something to you, if nothing else it has really ministered to me.
My goal for this blog, sense the very beginning, has been transparency. I don’t have everything together. I’m messed-up and screwed up. Yes I’m a Christian, I passionately seek the Lord, I run after Him daily, but I’m not perfect. It’s not easy to admit, but through reading this passage the Lord revealed to me how faithless I can be, how sometimes I can laugh at His promises, and yes, even doubt His mightiness.
Reading through the story of Abraham and Sarah I saw how the Lord is a miracle worker. Even when we don’t deserve it, He works miracles and provides us with the desires in our heart. Even when we laugh in His face promising us something that seems impossible, He provides.
These are verses from Genesis 11-17
The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household 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."
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.”
God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.
So basically whenever I use to read this passage I would think. Wow, that’s great that the Lord did that. How great that Sarah would have a kid. Wow cool God. And that is where I would stop and move on to Genesis 18. But, when I truly stopped and read it, and appreciated it, I realized, God just provided the IMPOSSIBLE! Sarah's pregnancy was truly miraculous; she had been trying to get pregnant for so many years without success, but when she put her faith in God's word, the impossible became possible. In the physical her case looked hopeless, but little did she know that God was preparing her for an exceptional miracle.
Sarah and Abraham (a great follow of God) laughed about God’s faithfulness, yet God provided. Abraham being the man of God that he was, doubted God for all that He promised. This spoke to me, because God could reveal and provide us with so stinkin much but we have a tendency to put God in a little box and expect Him to only provide us with what we need, not what we desire. FALSE! This is so false, it says in the bible, delight in ME (meaning the Lord) and I will give you the desires of your heart, because it is I would created those desires.
God is not human, and has no human characteristic, He is able to do exceeding more than we can imagine. But, like Sarah, we don’t really expect God to work crazy miraculous things through us.
Like Sarah, we limit God’s abilities, and when He reveals something amazing to us, we laugh and doubt that He can provide such a thing. FAULT. One of God’s many names is Jehovah Jireh- God our Provider. He can provide so much more that we could ever imagine. His plan for our life is better than the best we could ever even imagine it.
So this is my desire. That we let God out of our boxes. That we let Him provide us with more than we need, but what we desire. Key # 1 to do this is, stop limiting God. When He speaks, listen, follow, and surrender. Number 2, never expect less than miraculous. Our God is in the business of miracles, He does only heal, restore, part seas, walk on water, gives sight to the blind, etc. Give Him the power He deserves and He will do exceedingly more than you could ever imagine. Even when it seems impossible!
“If the vision you have for your future isn’t intimidating to you, there is a real good chance it is insulting to God.” –Pastor Steven Furtick
-Be Blessed
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