Seeing beyond our limited expectations reveals the beauty of God’s interactions in our lives. Noah never envisioned building an ark to preserve the line of the Savior. The Apostle Paul was a committed Jew who would have never seen himself as a Christian missionary, but God did. You may be journeying through life without realizing that God’s hand is steering you into a destiny only He can imagine.
God knows our journeys from beginning to end and intervenes to guide us into His plan and purpose. Scripture offers insight into a God who foresees our future: Psalm 139:16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.[1]
God Reveals His Plan for Abraham
When Abraham was seventy-five, God revealed His plan for his life. Later, God made a covenant with Abraham that he would have a son and many descendants as numerous as the sand on the seashore. As time passed, Abraham and Sarah still had no son, which led them to have one through their servant Hagar. God would bless this child, but he would not be the child of the promise.
Have you ever struggled to believe God’s promises? It is often in waiting that God teaches us the importance of trusting in His timing. Once again, the Lord appeared to Abraham at the age of ninety-nine, reminding him that he would have a son with Sarah. Sometime later, the Lord appeared to Abraham again near the oak grove belonging to Mamre, accompanied by two other men. Genesis 18:9“Where is Sarah, your wife?” the visitors asked. “She’s inside the tent,” Abraham replied.10 Then one of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!”[2]
Sarah, who was ninty, found the words that the Lord spoke impossible. This is where God sees beyond our limited expectations! This is a reminder that faith does not rest on visible possibilities, but on God’s divine word. As believers, we can trust God’s promises regardless of our circumstances.
Power Through Weakness
Genesis 18:10Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. 11 Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. 12 So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?” [3]
Like Sarah and Abraham, it is not unusual for God to place us in situations where we must depend on Him. In their weakness, Abraham and Sarah struggled just as we do. Sarah laughed when God told her she would have a child. Within a year, this became a reality for Sarah. This serves as a powerful reminder of God’s ability to work through our weaknesses, limitations, and impossibilities to fulfill His unbelievable plan.
To learn more about seeing beyond our limited expectations, listen here:
https://podpoint.com/light-of-christ-church-podcast/laughter-and-doubt
[1-2] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Tyndale House Publishers.