Last week Advent started. I was super pumped to get into my She Reads Truth Advent Study. If you’re not familiar with Advent (like I was not growing up) it simply means, the arrival of something important. In Christian culture, it is the arrival of Jesus, and also the second arrival we are still waiting for.
On day 3, it dove into God’s promise to Abram. (This starts in Genesis 12) It is so funny to me how no matter how many times you have heard a story, there is always new meaning to be found depending on how you receive it, and what season of life you are in.
I was so struck by the story of God’s promises to Abram. He came to Abram and said, “I’m going to make you into a great nation, I’m going to make your name great.” and Abram was so faithful. He goes from his land- AT 75 YEARS OLD. We all know how hard change is, but he packs it in and follows God’s command. He leaves and as he goes along, God continues to say, “I’ll give you this land for your descendants.” Even when Abram is unsure God says, “See this dust, the stars.. if anyone can count these, they can count the number of your offspring.”
Because Abram and Sarai are human, they start to doubt. They get impatient and have a hard time believing she’s actually going to get preganant. So Sarai gives Abram her servant Hagar, and she gets pregnant. But does God punish them for trying to do it their way? No. He’s like “hey listen Hagar, I’m going to take care of you” and tells Abram, “Hagar’s son Ishmael is going to be a great nation too, because he’s your offspring.”
I mean they’re getting pretty old right? But, God has made a promise. He’s changed where they live, heck he has even changed their names. So I mean they are believers, but they get to such a point of disbelief that Sarah is LAUGHING. Abraham is chuckling and saying to himself, “yeah so a 100 year old is gonna have a baby” and God is like “YUP.” Then it happens ya’ll, it happens. And guess what?!? Abraham has 1,000,000,000,0000+ descendants. Not only does he have all these descendants – guess who one of those descendants is? A baby born in a manger named Jesus. I mean i’m blown away by God’s faithfulness. So God kept his promise, and fulfilled it big time. Through all the faithfulness, and doubt, and heartache, and laughter, and TIME passed – God kept it.
So Hear me out- in summary:
God makes promises. (You will have many descendants)
God keeps the promise when we doubt. (Abraham and Sarah laughing/having a child with Hagar)
He fulfills the promise. (Isaac is born)
He fulfills it to the 100,000,000th degree. (Jesus is born in his lineage)
I love to look back at stories like this because for whatever reason people seem to write off the old testament as a bunch of old stories. But I don’t see a bunch of old stories, I see lessons to be learned.
Immediately I’m pulled to the promises in my life. I’m reminded of his promises that he has fulfilled and the one’s I’m still (somewhat) patiently waiting for. I mean can you imagine waiting for a baby for 100 years?! The patience, good gravy.
For instance, I felt such a calling to write. I felt God promise me that this is the right choice for my life. I 100% believe this is a spirit led choice. But what does it mean? I don’t know. I certainly don’t have all the answers. I might not even fully understand until I’m 100 like Abraham. I do know that God does what he says he will do. Not because of anything I do, but because HE said HE would.
I want you urge you all (along with myself) to practice patience because we know God keeps his promises, no matter how long it takes. Then he fulfills it better and more full than we could ever imagine.
Also, if you feel led, I want you to comment. You can do that either here, facebook, instagram, youtube, wherever you see this and tell me times when God has fulfilled a promise for you, or a promise you are still waiting on. We are all in this together friends, trusting and waiting and hoping and believing in his promises. Let’s encourage each other through it.
Happy Advent!
After all, didn’t God promise us Jesus’ arrival?
Video Version:
wow this is so powerful and so true! I recently heard one writer put it this way and it hit me square between the eyes: “the purpose of a promise is not to inspire us to strategize and make plans, but instead it works to make us desperate for God to show up.” And the examples of His faithfulness, of His coming through on His promises over and over again, reminds us that He IS trustworthy and His promises are so so good.
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