"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" (Genesis 18:14) was an open question God asked after Sarah, Abraham's wife, laughed at the thought of being a mother at 80 years. "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am old?" (Genesis 18:13) To Sarah it was like a joke; most probably God was just pulling her legs. That she would have her first child at 80 was ridiculous and it was something she had not contemplated. Yet, her husband had asked of God: "O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? You have given me no child; so a servant in my household will be my heir." (Genesis 15:2-3)
If Abraham was to have a child it should have been by Sarah, his wife. But having dismissed the fact that she could one day be a mother, Sarah had offered her maid to her husband. "Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maid servant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived." (Genesis 16:3-4)
For the couple, Hagar had gotten Abraham a child, and that was the end of the story. But God confirmed 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 will come from her." (Genesis 17:15-16) This time around it was Abraham who had a grin on his face. He fell to his face and laughed: "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?" (Genesis 17:17) Time had passed, ten years since God had made the promise.
Just when Abraham and Sarah doubted God's ability, God confirmed that nothing is too hard for him to do.
Both Abraham and Sarah "were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah had past the age of childbearing." (Genesis 18:11) But our God is a God of resurrection. Abraham later believed. Paul in his letter to the Romans wrote: "Against all hope, Abraham believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "so shall your offspring be." Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah’s womb was also dead." (Romans 4:18-24)
Have you ever given up all hope on the accomplishment of your dreams? Have you thought God was never going to deliver; that you were never going to be blessed? Well, if you only depended on your own strength you were right to limit yourself to things your imagination could not fathom. It all depends on who you are looking up to. Our strengths are limited, that of the Almighty is limitless. It is also a question of who you are listening to. Our Lord Jesus declared that with men some things are impossible but that with God all things are possible. (Luke 1: 37) What have you believed God for that has not come to pass in your life? That husband, wife, job, visa, house, you name it – hand it over to God for a miracle.
Whatever you consider dead in your dreams God will resurrect in Jesus' name. Trust in the One who is the Creator of life to bring life to what you consider lifeless and truly dead in you. Thereafter Abraham "...did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." (Romans 4:20-21)
Another question God asked one of the great prophets of the Old Testament - which probably must have astonished him, was this: "Why are you crying out to me?" What were the circumstances leading to that question? They had just exited
Fear had gripped them as death stared them in the face. Moses, perplexed and bewildered, could not make any headway in reassuring them there was no danger. He had called to God for help. It was then that God enquired of him. "Why are you crying out to me?" "Raise your staff and stretch your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry land." (Exodus 14:15-16)
That was Moses' first ordeal. Once they had crossed over to the other side of the
God is standing nearby; he is not far away. He says when we call upon him he will answer: "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." (Jeremiah 33:3) Each time Moses called for help God reacted.
And so it will be with us when we address our appeals to the Most High God. For it is: "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty." (Zechariah 4:6)
Much of what God will accomplish in our lives would be as a result of our faith. What is your faith level? How much of your quota of belief reposes on God and his ability to deliver? A group of twelve men, amongst them some seasoned fishermen, are in a boat when a storm raged. At the back of the boat was Jesus, fast asleep. Terrified that the boat would sink, they woke him up saying, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" (Mark 4:38) Others shouted: "Master, Master, we’re going to drown!" (Luke 8:24) Then "Jesus got up and gave an order to the wind and the stormy water; they died down, and there was a great calm. Then he said to the disciples, "Where is your faith?" (Luke 8:25) They had no answer to that question. In their amazement they said to each other, "Who is this man? He gives orders to the winds and waves, and they obey him."
The world is your boat and it is going through troubled waters. Jesus is in your boat but he is asleep. Does it mean he does not care? No! His worry is that you do not seem to realise that he is in your boat and therefore nothing would go wrong. You fret and you worry uselessly. "O you of little faith!" he said once to his audience. (Luke 12:28)
My sister, my brother this question is also for you. "Where is your faith?"