From the Barren Places

Sometimes the Bible stories we tell each other can get so familiar that we forget just truly odd they can be, and their familiarity can obscure the truths they are designed to teach us. Consider the story of Abraham and Sarah.

Abram was an old man and his wife was childless, well past childbearing years. God comes to this man and promises him a son who would be his heir, but he would be 100 years of age before it came to pass. Now this thing was, by any medical stretch of the imagination, an impossibility when it was first spoken. Better than a decade later, it was still impossible and may have seemed more so because this old man was now really, really old!

God changed this man's name signifying a change in his destiny. Genesis 17:5 "Neither shall your name any more be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made you." So from that day on when people called to him, they were saying, "Hey Abraham, you, the father of many nations." And while he was a rich and powerful man, my guess is that his family, friends, and neighbors were smiling inside, and probably not kindly. The whole situation was absurd!

At the appointed time Sarah conceived and her baby boy Isaac was born. His named means "laughter" and no doubt she and her husband, and all of the neighbors, would giggle thinking about how impossible it was for this very old woman of 90 to have conceived a child. Her womb was barren yet by believing the promise of God, she bore a son in her very old age.

The lesson of this odd story is that God meets us in the barren places in order to produce his will and purposes in our lives. Sarah considered her womb dead - it could not produce life - yet she believed that God could take that which was dead and bring forth life! Over and over the Lord reiterates this same principal to every generation: It's not by human might, nor by human power, but by His Spirit that his purposes are accomplished.

Did Abraham and Sarah have an intricate part to play in producing an offspring? Yes, they certainly did! But it could only come to pass at the word of the Lord because, according to Genesis 21:1, "The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. And Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him." This baby was born, this promise of God came into the world, because "the Lord did unto Sarah" what he had spoken.

Ever get frustrated trying to make God's promises in your life come to pass? In this illustration, God took a barren old man and woman and changed both of their names promising that a spiritual dynasty would come from their union. Can very old people produce children? No, that's not the way things generally work. God met these two people who greatly desired a child in their barren place - in that place of human impossibility - and granted them a child and a destiny by his own power.

Keep speaking your promised destiny from God. Abraham didn't stagger at the circumstantial impossibilities facing him and his wife, he looked beyond his desperate need and saw the greatness of God, and believed Him who promised.

If His promises seem to tarry, wait for them. Often God delays his answers to bring an even greater deliverance, and he receives greater glory. He will meet you in the place of your barrenness and heal you by speaking forth life - if you will only believe!

Used with permission from:
Bryan Hupperts
© 2000 SheepTrax Ministries
4744 Stone Hill Drive
St. Louis, MO 63128
Sheeptrax@saintly.com
http://members.igateway.net/~bryanh

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