This morning during my quiet time I read that familiar story of Sarah’s laughing unbelief at God’s promise to her and Abraham:
The Lord said [to Abraham], “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son” (Genesis 18: 10-14).
I am glad that the Bible does not gloss over Sarah’s struggle to believe and trust God. Because I too struggle with unbelief. Sadly, I too sometimes laugh and question in my heart like Sarah: “Shall I indeed________? Shall God indeed prove powerful and faithful?” Even this morning, as I read this portion of Scripture, I was convicted of a specific area where I have not been trusting God.
It is hard to trust God.
I’ve actually been mulling over this reality for the past several weeks—ever since hearing a sermon by Robin Boisvert where he made this very point: “Trusting God actually takes effort. Trusting God actually takes work. It takes reading the Bible. It takes meditating on Scripture. It takes praying about things. It takes taking our own souls to task and stopping one kind of thinking and turning to another kind of thinking. It takes work. It takes effort.”
This is a helpful reminder. I don’t naturally trust God. I need the power of the Holy Spirit, and I need to take my soul to task. I need to choose to trust God in all circumstances.
And I’m encouraged to do so by Sarah’s example. For despite her initial cynicism and doubt, she too came to believe the promise of God. We learn in Hebrews 11:11 that “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who promised.”
Trusting God is hard, but in another sense it is also easy. For when we choose to “consider him faithful who promised” we are putting our faith in one for whom nothing is hard: "Ah, Lord God! It is you who has made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you." Jeremiah 32:17
Where have you been tempted to doubt Gods faithfulness and power today? Turn, like Sarah, to “another kind of thinking” and trust in Him for whom nothing is too hard!
