13 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no
one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 say-
ing, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.”
15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was
promised.
Hebrews 6:13-15
Has God ever spoken to you and gave you a promise concerning
His plans for you through His Word, in a next to audible or even an au-
dible voice? As was explained last week, God sometimes even speaks
to us through a prophetic message given by another person to us per-
sonally.
As in my life, God spoke to me, first through a prophecy then a
few years later in a next to audible voice, concerning His plans for the
first part of my ministry life to serve Him as a missionary. But it was
not until about 15 years later after God revealed His will for me did, I
finally experience what God had disclosed to me many years before.
Waiting for God to fulfill his promise is not easy and the enemy will do
anything to discourage and derail us from God’s plan for our lives.
Even though after God spoke to me and also miraculously provided
and blessed me in countless ways, confirming His plans for my life,
there were still instances where I had the choice to take another route
for my life and to forfeit everything that God had planned for me by one wrong decision. If it was not because of God’s love, protection,
grace and mercy, in my life, which kept me on His planned path of
ministry that He had chosen for me, I would probably not even be writ-
ing this bulletin message.
Looking at the life of Abraham, Genesis 12:1-4 tells us, “1
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people
and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will
make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless
those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and
all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 4 So Abram
left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram
was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.”
An important point we see here is that Abram was not a young
man when God first spoke to him. Granted, back then people easily
lived to be over 100 years old. If we do not continue reading in the fol-
lowing chapters about what God did in Abram’s life, it would be easy to
wonder why did not God choose someone younger? How does this re-
late to us today? God always knows what He is doing and why He is
doing it and why He chooses to use certain people in spite of their age.
In a natural human way of looking at life one could easily think that in
order to be of any use to God a person needs to be young. Not always
true. Moses was eighty and his brother Arron was eighty-three when
they first went Pharaoh. Exodus 7:6-7, 6 Moses and Aaron did just
as the Lord commanded them. 7 Moses was eighty years old
and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh. Caleb was
eighty-five when he asked Moses to let him take possession of the land
that God forty years earlier God promised to give him. Joshua 14:10-
12, 10 “Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me
alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses,
while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today,
eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day
Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now
as I was then. 12 Now give me this hill country that the Lord
promised me that day.
The point is, our age is not an obstacle if we are willing and submit
our lives to always be used by God. But what can be challenging for
many is, will we stay faithful to God and the promise that He gave us,
even though we might have to wait decades to experience the fulfill-
ment of the reality of that promise in our lives? Abraham had to wait
twenty-five years before he experienced the fulfillment of God’s prom-
ise to him of having a child.
During the twenty-five year wait from Genesis 12:4 to Genesis
21:5 God repeatedly blessed Abraham materially Genesis 12:16,
13:2,6; 20:14 -16, 24:34-35. But most importantly Abraham sought
out God, Genesis 12: 7, 8, 13:4, 21:33, 22:13-14. In spite of all the
wealth that God had blessed Abraham with he did not let the wealth
separate him from God, he continued to seek out God. How easy it is
for some to be derailed from the plans of God for their lives by the wealth the we receive from Him.
Genesis 16:1-4 16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him
no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar;
2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having chil-
dren. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a fam-
ily through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after
Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took
her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to
be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
In spite all that God did for Abraham and the many different times
God reassured him that he was going to have “descendants” or
“offspring”, Abraham did not wait for God to do it His way and in His
time. Abraham yielded to the suggestion of his wife Sarah to have a
child through her “maidservant” Hagar. This is a demonstration of Abra-
ham and Sarah’s unwillingness not to wait on the Lord and rushing
ahead with their own plans to have a child. It is also a good example of
human reasoning based on only what we can see and what we under-
stand. We see what we are all capable of doing when we do not wait
and trust on God and His Word.
Abraham could not have the excuse that he did not know what
God’s will or word. Multiple times God spoke and reassured Abraham
that he was going to have “decedents” or “offspring”. From Genesis
chapter 12 to chapter 15, Genesis, 12:1-3, 7; 13:14-17, 15:4-5, 13.
But why was Abraham so easily derailed from God’s will concerning His
promise? For the same human reasons, you and I are capable of not
waiting for God to do in our lives what He has promised.
As I experienced in my life, it was because of God’s love, protec-
tion, grace and mercy, that allowed Abraham and Sarah to experience
the fulfillment of God’s will and promise for them to experience plan for
them even if it was too hard to believe, Genesis 18:9-15. Verse 14, IS
ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD?
Pastor John
Abraham was a hundred years old
when his son Isaac was born to him.
Genesis 21:5
