Don't Lose Hope -- Sarai/Sarah Part 1

Don’t give up hope

Has the Lord ever told you something that is so amazing, so magnificent, so life-changing that you can hardly believe it?  It’s so big and so significant you can’t even get your hopes up for it?  Maybe He has said that you won’t always have to struggle financially… that major financial breakthrough is coming!  Maybe it’s that your wayward son or daughter will return to the Lord.  Maybe it’s that your marriage or your body will be healed.  In the natural, it’s totally impossible.  Your credit score is in the single digits.  Your kid is running from the Lord so hard, the Lord will never catch him or her.  Your relationship is totally devoid of love, and your body is eaten up with cancer.  Impossible situations are not daunting to God.  Overcoming them is not a new thing for God.  In fact, that’s just when He likes to step in.

And, ladies, isn’t it annoying that our husbands don’t seem to struggle as much as we do with faith?  My husband just decides he’s going to believe God for something, and that’s that.  Me?  Nope.  I question God, I wrestle with Him, I argue with Him, I wonder when is it ever going to happen, on and on.  God’s typing SMH on his celestial cell phone right now. J

The good news is that we are in good company.  God graciously shows us many instances in the Bible when He shows up and shows out at the last minute to save the day.  But let’s focus on a few that have specifically to do with us ladies.

Sarai/Sarah -- Part 1

You know the story.  Abram and Sarai are old.  I mean OLD.  The Bible says they were beyond child-bearing age.  Yes, I think 77 YEARS OLD would be considered beyond child-bearing age.  Sarai’s so old, she’s even forgotten what hot flashes are like!  She’s so old, she thinks she has to help God make good on his promise to give them a son.

Sarah comes up with the great idea that since she’s too old to have a baby, she’ll give her maid servant Hagar to Abraham for them to make a baby, and it will be Sarah’s.  Ummmm.  What was she thinking?  Was she so desperate for a baby that she’d give away her husband to another woman?  I mean I know the culture was different back then, but really? 

Lesson #1 – Don’t give up something precious to FORCE the promise to happen

Be very careful.  In your desperation to get to your miracle, don’t do something stupid.  Don’t do something that jeopardizes your home or your integrity to get quick money. Don’t try to manipulate people or circumstances to drag your loved one back to the Lord.  You’ll end up driving them further away.  Sarai’s attempt to force the miracle gave birth to an Ishmael.  And the struggle between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac can be seen every day on CNN and Fox News.  Don’t do that!

Lesson #2 – Wait on the Lord’s perfect timing.

I know, ladies.  I can hear Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers singing, “the waiting is the hardest part.”  I get it.  Especially with Sarai.  Her body ain’t gettin’ no younger.  Every morning when she wakes up she sees evidence of that.  And maybe that’s why God changed her name.  Maybe Sarai needed to start seeing herself in a different light.  God changed Abram’s name to Abraham which means father of many nations.  He didn’t have to change Sarai’s name, but He did.  Do you need to see yourself differently? Does He need to give you a new name?  Have you seen yourself as unworthy, unloved, unnecessary?  Ask Him to tell you what your new name should be.  I think He will call you Worthy, Loved, and Vital.

But back to the waiting.  No one likes to wait.  Especially under difficult circumstances.  We all want immediate answers to prayer, immediate deliverance, immediate restoration.  But sometimes God makes us wait.  For Sarah, maybe she had to wait until God cut covenant (literally) in Abraham and Ishmael.  God requires them to be circumcised before Isaac is conceived.  That speaks to consecration, doesn’t it?  Maybe the hold up with our miracle is that something is still not right in our hearts.  Maybe we have to get something right with the Lord before our miracle can take place.  Ask the Lord… am I holding something up here?  Do I have bitterness in my heart and that’s why my marriage can’t be healed?  Do have I unforgiveness in my heart and that’s why my body is sick? 

Again back to the waiting.  Sometimes we just have to know that God knows what’s best.  I’ve heard it described like this.  It’s like we are at a parade.  The parade is HUGE and stretches out as far as the eye can see.  Only we’re looking at the parade behind a wooden fence, peering through a knothole.  That’s our only perspective.  God’s got the Goodyear blimp perspective… He sees it all!  And He’s making it all come together.  So there are just times that we have to say, “Yes Lord.  You are in control.  I know you love me.  I know you know what’s best for me.  I know you are taking good care of me.  And I trust you.” As a matter of fact, why don’t you say that out loud right now.  I think it will make you feel better!

Lesson #3 – Don’t give up hope.

On His way to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord told Abraham that this time next year, Sarah would have a son.  Now Sarah is hanging out in the tent.  She didn’t even go out to say hello to the visitors.  I think she’s hiding.  Don’t we do that sometimes?  We don’t even want to go to a church service where we might be encouraged?  We’re so depressed or so resigned to our negative situation, we don’t even seek out something positive?  I’ve been there! 

So when Sarah overhears the Lord say she will have a baby in a year’s time, does she jump for joy?  Full of belief for the miracle?  After all she’s waited over 20 years for the promise to come to pass.  Now it’s finally happening? 

Nope.  She laughs.  And I don’t believe it was a joyful laugh.  I believe it was a derisive laugh.  If this story were to happen today, you’d hear Sarah say, “yeah right.  It’s been so stinking long, I don’t believe it anymore.”  She had long ago given up hope for the promised baby to be born. 

Has that happened to you?  Have you given up hope?  I certainly have been in that place.  God it’s just been too long.  I tried to hold on to hope for as long as I could, but then I couldn’t do it anymore.  Just like Jack couldn’t hang onto the piece of driftwood at the end of Titanic (although I still think Rose could have moved over to make room for him!), he sinks down into the ocean to his death. 

Hopelessness is a tool of the enemy.  Hopelessness steals our joy.  It steals our excitement.  It’s the opposite of faith. 

But check out God!  He sounds genuinely surprised at Sarah’s response!  “Why did Sarah laugh?  Why did she say ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’”  From God’s perspective, if He said it would happen, then it’s going to happen!  It doesn’t matter if it takes days, weeks or years, what He says will come true will come true!  And that’s basically what He tells Abraham… “Dude!  Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

Lesson #4 – Act on faith

Now.  This part is not specifically stated in the Bible, so work with me here.  Let’s use our holy imagination just for a moment.  Sarah was 90 years old.  I’m just thinking that she probably put away her Victoria’s Secret sexy nighty a LONG time ago.  The Bible doesn’t say that she miraculously conceived without the normal conjugal relation.  So she had to take a step of faith and sleep with Abraham one more time. 

What do you have to do today to take one more step of faith?  Even though you don’t really have any hope anymore that anything will happen, what do you need to do one more time?  Do you need to make one more phone call?  Do you need to reach out one more time to your lost loved one?  Do you need to be sweet one more time to your estranged spouse?  Ask the Lord if there’s a step of faith you need to take today to move one step closer to your miracle. 

Lesson #5 – Receive the miracle

What did Sarah feel like the first time she had morning sickness?  How did her heart soar when she felt the baby move in her womb?  The Bible just skips ahead to the next year, but Sarah carried the answered prayer inside herself for 9 months!  Suddenly, her hope returned!  Suddenly, the promise she had waited on for 90 YEARS was being formed inside her own body!  Her doubt was gone when she felt that baby growing inside her! 

And that feeling, that experience will happen for you too!  Maybe you’ll get a phone call in the middle of the night, a voice saying, “Mama, I’m ready to come home.  Will you come get me?”  Maybe you’ll get a bouquet of flowers from your spouse with a card that reads, “I’m so sorry.  Will you please forgive me?”  Maybe you’ll get a check in the mail that will pay all your overdue bills and get you back on firm financial footing.  Receive the miracle that is waiting for you!

Lesson #6 – God keeps his promises

Sure enough, just like God had promised, Sarah and Abraham, who should have been ready for the nursing home, are preparing a nursery!  At 90 years old and 100 years old, they have a baby!!

Why?  Because God made a promise.  And when God makes a promise, He keeps it.  Numbers 23:17 NLT says “God is not a man, so he does not lie.  He is not human, so he does not change his mind.  Has he ever spoken and failed to act?  Has he ever promised and not carried it through?”

In Sarah’s case, the Bible says, “The Lord kept His word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised.  She became pregnant and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age.  This happened at just the time God had said it would.”

Check it out.  God kept his promise.  God kept His promise to Sarah, and He will keep His promise to you.  Because God hasn’t changed.  If you’ve lost hope, go back and dust off that promise that God made you.  You may have put it on a shelf, trying to forget it, but God hasn’t. 

And check out the last part.  “It happened at just the time God said it would.”  God’s promises always happen at HIS appointed time (and these do not necessarily coincide with OUR appointed time).  

So this little word of encouragement today for you is, God will keep his promise to you too.  It will happen when HE is ready, and the timing will be perfect.  Just brush off your God-given dreams.  Blow the cobwebs off the promises God has made you.  Stir up your hope again.  Know that God knows, He remembers, and He will fulfill His promise to you too!