Devotions

Why did God wait until Abraham and Sarah were old to give them a son? Why did he wait until the situation had become humanly impossible and only absolute faith in him could bring about the promise? It was because this seed was to be birthed completely in faith.

Abraham and Sarah both knew the amazing promise of God to give them a son but their faith was not yet ripe. Sarah became impatient and devised a plan and Abraham went along with it. Ishmael was born and while it was true that he was of Abraham’s seed, he was not the promised heir. In a twist of human nature, Sarah then raged at her husband with jealousy and blamed him. They were both trying to make God’s promise come about by their own efforts (see Genesis 16:1-15).

Perhaps you are wondering why your promise has not yet been fulfilled. You are trying to figure out how God will meet your need, becoming all bogged down concentrating on the hindrances instead of the possibilities.

Abraham and Sarah were given their miracle child but not until they became fully persuaded that God would fulfill his promise in his way and in his time. We know they became strong in their faith but only after having wavered — and Ishmael was a sign of that lapse in faith. Later, however, it was said of Abraham: “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform” (Romans 4:20-21).    

Beloved, any wavering you have comes from unbelief; do not try to figure things out or debate the issues within yourself. Having faith means you have settled all your arguments and are fully persuaded that God will keep his Word. He wants to do the impossible because the more impossible the situation, the more glory he receives!

"[God] delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us” (2 Corinthians 1:10).

Paul is speaking here of God’s delivering power — past, present and future! He is saying, “God has delivered us in the past, he is delivering us now, and he will deliver us in every future trouble and trial. We do not have to fear anything that comes our way because we know God is going to deliver us!”

That is a powerful declaration but many of us forget the past deliverances of our Lord, just as the children of Israel did. Oh, the deliverances God gave them! Leading them with a cloud by day and fire by night; dividing the Red Sea so they could pass through on dry land; giving them manna out of heaven and streams of water out of the rock. (Read these accounts in Exodus 13:21; 14:21-22; 16:31; Psalm 78:16.)  But still they tempted God and spoke against him.

Sadly, that often happens with us. We say, “Well, I was in a tight spot and God delivered me. But this is different.”

Our loving Father wants us to come to a place in our faith where we trust him in every crisis, every temptation, without question. He wants us to never again doubt his power to deliver us.

Don’t misunderstand me. We still have to fight the good fight of faith. The Lord has a way of allowing us to be “burdened beyond measure” at times, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:8. This means he was tried beyond his own strength and could no longer trust in himself. So he turned to God! 

Sometimes we have to admit we are in over our head and get on our knees before the Lord! I encourage you to cry out to the Lord today and trust him. He is faithful to deliver you.

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Paul is writing to the Corinthians and he is reassuring them. “You’re about ready to fall? You feel like you can’t go on? Well, be encouraged because I have a good word for you. A lot of people have walked through the same temptations you are experiencing, but they have not been overcome!” Why? Because God is faithful and he will provide a way of escape.

God is faithful! Those around you may not be faithful; in fact, I am not faithful in my own strength. But Jesus lives in us and the righteousness of God is being worked out in our lives.

When you meet Jesus, the seed of God lives in you. The blood of the Lamb that was sacrificed on the cross energizes you and your body, mind, heart and soul are transformed. Jesus captures your heart and transforms you, making you a new creation.

God will provide the way of escape! Our culture offers many ways of escaping but the Word of God says that Jesus is the way of escape. God will provide! Remember Abraham when he went up the mountain to offer his own son as a sacrifice. He was going in his own strength but God stopped him and said, “Not your own flesh, Abraham. I will provide a sacrifice for you” (see Genesis 22:12-13).

No matter what you are facing today, you can trust God to provide a way out for you — a way of escape. Look to him and confess, “Lord, you are my sufficiency. By your grace I can overcome every temptation in my life: depression, fear, anger, lust, any power of darkness that comes against me.”

Most of us know that Christ is the perfect model of love. We know the message in 1 Corinthians 13 about the preeminence of love, and we know that God is love. But then we foolishly try to love more in our own strength. We make well-meaning, deliberate attempts to overcome selfish habits and our natural distaste for cranky, obnoxious people. But when we react unkindly and sense failure, we just go back to the drawing board, convinced that if we only try harder, or read more scriptures, we’ll somehow get better at loving others.

Paul spoke of “love in the Spirit,” which is something totally separate from human ability. Remember his teaching to the Galatians? “The fruit of the Spirit is love” (Galatians 5:22). Love is a fruit growing within us from a supernatural source. It’s not your love, and yet it is, since the Spirit works in you both to will and to do loving things that are on his mind. He is our life and bears the fruit — not us. That is why he was sent to live in us.

How else could Stephen, as he was being stoned, say, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60)? Only the love of God could make him love like that.

Without the miracle of God’s love, life has a way of hardening all of us. We become cynical, crusty senior citizens without the glow of the “first love” we experienced at the beginning of our life in Christ. This is not only bad for us but also for the cause of Christ to a watching world. But it doesn’t have to be that way. “They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green” (Psalm 92:14).

Let’s ask for a fresh baptism of God’s love. Let’s then walk in that love so everyone encountering us can have a peek into the heart of God.

Jim Cymbala began the Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson.

A crucial link is missing in many of our lives, which often is the reason we do not receive answers to many of our prayers. Beloved, that missing link is faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

James is very clear in this instruction: “Let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6-7).

If a person entertains doubt, regardless of how many rivers of tears he cries, he will not receive anything from God. Of course, God wants us to cry out to him from our inmost being. But he does not hear our cries unless they are accompanied by faith!

The psalms abound with the testimony of David who came to God not only with tears but with a heart full of confidence and total trust in his Father. “Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard the voice of my supplications! The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped” (Psalm 28:6-7).

“[The Lord] is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name” (Psalm 33:20-21). 

Nearly every time we read David’s cries to the Lord in prayer, we hear his testimony of trust. You may spend many hours in prayer, weeping and pleading with God to give you what he has already promised. We cannot conceive of the possibility that God could be displeased with our prayers. However, the Word is clear that we must “ask in faith, with no doubting.”

Beloved, grab hold of this wonderful truth and allow God to bring you into a new place in prayer.