IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR GOD?

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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.

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Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”

But He said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

Genesis 17:15-22, 18:10-15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt it was impossible for something to happen, something you hoped could come about but it seemed improbable?

If we’re honest, I think we all may have said or thought to ourselves, "I can’t do that", or “I wish this or that would take place but that’s not going to happen", at one time or another.

Maybe you or someone close to you has entered into bad health and you started to feel like there was no hope of healing and recovery.

Maybe you have been through relationship issues and felt that reconciliation seemed unattainable.

Maybe you struggled financially, wondering if you would ever get to a place where there would no longer be worries about money and meeting obligations.

Maybe you’ve fallen prey to alcohol, drug, eating, or pornography addictions that have taken over your life while bringing a concern that you’ll never break free of their grip on you.

Or maybe you have allowed yourself to give up on finding success, love, or security in life.

In response to all these things and any others like them that would breed a sense of certain doubt, God has some words for us as He did for Peter who started to sink after leaving the boat and taking a few steps on the water before sinking into the depths:

“You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Matthew 14:31

Indeed, why do we doubt when we serve a God who is all powerful, all knowing, all capable, and all willing to make anything happen in our life in accordance with His will.

And yet, we so often quickly lose trust in Him and fall into Satan’s web of uncertainty, hopelessness, inadequacy, depression, and despair. Like Sarah in our scripture passage for today, we start to look at things from a worldly perspective vice a "God can do anything" perspective.

The scriptures tell us that Sarah, told by God that she will bear a son with Abraham, responds by laughing and thinking:

"After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?"

She probably did this thinking her thoughts were concealed but she quickly learned that God can see to the very depths of our hearts and minds, and into the very thoughts that we think.

Nothing is hidden from Him.

And so we see Sarah, obviously embarrassed when God calls her out, trying to cover up her sinful doubt by adding another sin as she tries to lie her way around God. It was a plan that quickly goes bad for as soon as Sarah says, "I did not laugh", God replies, "Yes, you did laugh." God let Sarah know that He was well aware of her doubt, a doubt we also saw in her husband Abraham in Chapter 17 who also had a laugh within himself when God promised him a son by Sarah.

Of course, we find the ultimate ironic twist in this story through the son God promises to Abraham and Sarah. For God commanded the couple to give their boy the name, Isaac, which simply means “he laughs". Through this, we see where our Lord definitely has a sense of humor and one has to think that both Abraham and Sarah would be reminded of their lack of faith and trust every time they would speak Isaac’s name.

Ultimately, God didn’t just say the following to Abraham and Sarah (and to us as well as we read His words) but He backed up His words with action.

“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

We should allow this question to penetrate deep into our hearts and minds as we deal with the matters of life. For there is nothing impossible when the God of all possibilities is with us and for us. As it was in biblical times, He makes it a habit to make the improbable probable.

All we need to do is believe.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.