Attentive to God’s Power
Let me point out one more thing about Abraham's encounter with God and the angels in Genesis 18. It's not just God's presence that Abraham sees and recognises. Abraham still believes that God has the power to achieve the impossible.
Sarah doesn't believe this at all. We read: "The LORD said to Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh and say, "Will I really have a child, now that I am old?" Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.' Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, 'I did not laugh.' But He said, 'Yes, you did laugh.'" (Genesis 18:13-15)
As God points out to them, yet again, that His promise will be fulfilled, Sarah laughs. She thinks there is no power in the world that can make the impossible possible. But Abraham's quiet faith in the power of God is still there!
Nothing Too Hard for Our God
I love how God says here: "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" He's reminding them of the very thing He told Abraham in the last chapter - that He is El Shaddai - the all-powerful, all-sufficient one. So Abraham remains attentive to God's power. He not only acknowledges God as present, but he acknowledges Him as powerful and able to fulfil what He promised.
God is still powerful. God is still bringing His promises to fruition today. Will we laugh such things off, like Sarah? Or will we declare that nothing is too hard for our God?
The song in the background this week is an old CrossRoad song which we recorded back in 2014. It says "There is nothing too big for my God! No mountain's too high with my God! No road is too long because of my Jesus!" We sang that song the Sunday before COVID broke out here in South Africa. It was that Sunday that our president called the first meeting and announced the lockdown, and everybody was starting to panic.
And we played out at a local church, and we sang this song, and I remember us saying "whatever is coming, this is our song, this is our belief, this is our hope: there is nothing too big for our God!"
God's Promise in the Storm
In the months that came it was hard to stay attentive to God's power, as we saw death sweep across the world the way it did. But God's promise is not to protect us from all harm. It's not to shield us from all difficulty. It's not to heal everybody from all diseases or to fix everybody's situations. His promise to us is to give us the strength to walk the highest mountains, the longest roads... and to be with us as we walk them. His promise is to be our God, our joy, our delight - through our griefs, our sorrows, our hardships.
There's nothing too big for our God! No hardship too big for Him to get us through. You can be attentive to the obstacles, the issues, the seeming impossibilities around you. Or you can be attentive to the promises of God: to make you a conqueror of these things in His name.
Abraham's promise was for a child, and despite the obvious impossibility of it, God's promise held true. Keep His promises in your sights, on your mind, in your heart. Keep being attentive to what He promised. Don't forget it or let other things cloud your mind.
He will come through for you, like He did for Abraham and Sarah.
