Tuesday Reading: Genesis 17:17
Key Verse: Genesis 17:17
17 And Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born to him that is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear?
Devotion:
I recently read a quote “Dear Life, When I said ‘can my life get any worse’ it was a rhetorical question and not a challenge” with a bit of a chuckle. God is not one that will make a joke out of your life but is rather trying to stop you from making a joke out of your life. How we view what God allows into our life will make for some interesting reading when we finally get to see why things came into our lives; whether that is waiting until tomorrow, waiting a year, a decade or even waiting until we get to heaven should not worry us in one bit. Just knowing that God is in control of our lives should be more than any comfort we desire.
When God told Abraham that he would have a child when he was one hundred years old I am sure that many things went through his mind – not least of which may well have been ‘how am I going to look after a child at my age’. Or at least that is how we would view things if they were happening in this day and age. Abraham laughed in his heart because he really thought that that would be impossible – but God made it so as we now know. Sarah was a fair old age as well but that still did not stop God making it possible for them to have a child.
It does not matter where you think you are in life but rather where God is going to put you in life. He requires certain things of us and will encourage us to fulfil those things. If we are going to do everything in our power to avoid those things or to side-step them, then we are the ones who are at fault and not Him. Seeing just what He has in store for us is quite often a task that we miss because of the many distractions in our lives. We like to think that we are busy doing the Lords will and that we are working with Him, but sometimes He requires us to stop and listen to what He is trying to tell us rather than us continuing to do what we think is best. Abraham’s challenge from God was a very real challenge – to stop and listen but also to believe in exactly what He was saying. That would come at a price, but the belief had to start right then and there…
Points to Ponder:
Do you find life hard to accept sometimes?
Are you willing to accept God’s will?