Waiting Weakens Us… Seek That Your Faith Will Endure

From: April 3 – 9, 2012

TOPIC: “Waiting Weakens Us… Seek That Your Faith Will Endure” Genesis 18:12 - 15 The long wait weakens the faith. Sarah, like Abraham, had been visited by the angels as the messengers sent from Heaven. They brought both Abraham and Sarah a message from God for the blessing of their lives. Although the visit was mainly for Abraham, there was also a blessing for her. Sarah would have her joy in her old age and the blessing of having a child in her womb, the promise of a nation that would rise in that land. The angels wanted to speak not only to Abraham so that he would exercise his faith, but God wanted Sarah to also believe him and enjoy the blessing for her. So it happens: God wants us to hear His voice so that we can continue to obtain the good that He has prepared for us. Verse 9 says, "Where is Sarah ...?” The angels were not ignoring Abraham’s wife. There was a great interest on God’s behalf for Sarah to resume in her life the faith in order to obtain the promise of a son. In those times there was a custom in which the women were not able to sit at the table with the men and much less if there were strangers among them. So, while the angels were speaking to Abraham, Sarah was at the tent, not far from them. Possibly, the angels were watching her, but surely they weren’t about to break their existing rules. But, God wanted to touch Sarah’s heart; he wanted to give her an answer and let her know that now He would fulfill the desire of her heart of having a son. They knew that she was able to hear what they wanted her to hear from that distance. The son she always craved was about to arrive. Sara thought those news were too good to be true and for that reason, suddenly she could not believe it. For that woman the announcement of having a son at her old age seemed incredible. It is quite common that when time passes and what is expected does not arrive the heart becomes hardened. But, every day of our journey we must keep alive the hope that God is powerful to do what is missing in our lives. We cannot let the faith die. In Sara there was a lopsided grin and it was not for the angels, maybe it was for Abraham. But, where that lopsided grin arrived was to the third heaven, where God dwells. God saw that smile, something that seemed to say: "What for, at this age I do not need that child I had longed for." In reality, she no longer needed what she had always longed for, but, GOD PROMISED and so, GOD WILL GIVE! God had not finished what He started in Abraham, and that promising son was what would make God great on earth. We see that along with Abraham there was also a woman named Sarah, whose faith would allow God to fulfill the purposes of having her son; that would allow God, hereinafter, to move his powerful hand to favor the people that would rise from Isaac. Sara took the announcement of the child as incredible. It produced in her doubt and for that reason she could not accept it. But, by not accepting as credible the voice of the angels was like saying to God: "You cannot do this, to give me a child, because my infertility is greater than you!" That is the way God received it and thus caused Him great discomfort. Of course, that having smiled was just for her. Sara had no intention of anyone else seeing her. No one should know what she had felt at that moment, her great fear that she was not going to be able to have the child they were speaking of. Then, it would be better to leave things as they had been until then. The angels reproached Sara for having smiled, it was not a mocking laughter but a half-smile, but it was a reflection of disbelief in her being. She was being reproached about the smile, and she added the lie to her distrust. All disbelief and distrust are a great offense to the God of the heavens. Because the more you believe the Lord, the more you obtain. Sara had such fear that led her to doubt at that moment. She hesitated, but even so, God did not stop do in her favor. Jehovah did with Sarah just as He had said. Sara accepted in her heart the veracity of the message of the angels and then finally, when she received the promised son in her life, she said: "God has made me laugh…" Now she did not laugh of derision but with contentment, for God did what was impossible for her. God is punctual with "His clock", He isn’t with ours.

The fulfillment of the promise caused Sara laughter and joy to everyone who would find out about God’s miracle in her. This miracle, this promise fulfilled is a matter of great admiration; the fact was so improbable, so close to the impossible that if anyone other than God would have said it, nobody would have believed it even remotely. If you expect something and you do not expect it from God, nothing will happen. But if your expectation is in God, surely it will arrive in God’s time and you will obtain it. For God nothing is difficult as it is for us. For Him everything is possible. Therefore, let us believe and sustain our belief in His promises, and may our faith not weaken while we wait. The one who promised will comply! Well, He is God! Amen.