Thank you for joining me in part four of a five part series on Genesis 18:1-14. Please read this portion of Scripture aloud before you begin. May God bless the reading of his Word as only he can!
“Then 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.’” (Genesis 18:13-14).
My father often tells me that “the best is yet to be.” His hopeful admonition usually punctuates a difficult season in my journey. On these occasions, I cling hard and fast to the idea that “what is to come,” far exceeds all that “has been” or currently “is.” But most days, when all is routine and not so difficult, I fall prey to believing that “what is” really is as good as it gets. Forty-two years of a lot of living lends itself to vision fixed at ground level, to a mind melded toward all things temporal, and to a heart shaped for selfish pursuit. I have grown quite accustomed to life as usual. So when my spirit is confronted with the sacred truth from a Holy God, who always breathes a message of something better, my flesh often retreats behind the wall of doubt. The echoes of my faithless laughter drown out the whispers of his faith-filled promises.
Promises measured according to God’s standards…God’s timing…God’s vision. Promises which always remain fixed at the eternal level and, therefore, prompt God to ponder my disbelief and ask the question of me that he asked of his servant, Sarah, long ago.
Is anything too hard for the Lord?
Hard things. Things I find difficult. Things like parenting. Sickness. Dieting. Releasing my grip of things and of people. Jealousy. Grief. Death. Sin-filled acts against humanity. Complacency in the church. Betrayal. Loneliness. Hopes long deferred and, yet, not so easily forgotten. Hard things. Things not easily understood or readily accepted, yet often the “things” that God chooses as a platform to display his marvelous and extraordinary workings.
Sarah knew about hard things.
She had spent her life as a tent dweller—a nomad keeping in stride with her husband’s calling to follow God. She was labeled with a false identity by her husband (a.k.a. “sister”) and therefore, handed over in a plan to procure a king’s favor…twice (see Genesis 12, 20). She harbored a barren womb while others around her enjoyed the fruits of motherhood. She walked within an aged frame that boasted a sad heart, with little hope for anything new. Indeed, hard living was Sarah’s portion, and it was a journey that required a difficult faith.
Hard. The Hebrew transliterated word for “hard” in this passage is palah meaning “to be marvelous, be wonderful, be surpassing, be extraordinary, be separate by distinguishing action.”[i] Is anything, therefore, too marvelous…too wonderful…too surpassing…too extraordinary…too distinguishing for our God to accomplish? He who spoke the world into existence, who formed the flesh of man and fashioned him after his image, …is there anything too hard for him?
So often I am tempted to keep God in his heavens. To limit his extraordinary workings because, quite frankly, I have deemed some portions of my life “too hard” for him. My understanding of who God is and what he desires for my life, is often framed through the temporal lenses of a past that boasted a “less than” existence. A past littered with let downs, with disappointments, with dreams that have died a hard death, and with a whole lot of “life as usual.” He didn’t author those seasons; sinful choices usually led me there, and yet my flesh is tempted to label him with the responsibility.
If God really loved me, then life would have been different. Life wouldn’t be so hard.
The fact is…
Life is hard.
The overriding fact is…
Our hard is God’s specialty.
God did not land our lives on planet earth so that we could just “pass through” into our next. While here, he means for us to live. To move beyond what “once was” into the wonderful, surpassing, extraordinary, and distinguishing grace of a God who designed us for abundance. Who loves us beyond reasonable bounds and who delights in mediating his majesty into our “hard” things.
It is a difficult trust…this letting go and believing God for our extraordinary. We lose some control with our relinquishment, but what we gain far exceeds what we expect. We gain Promise—a pleasured, edenic portion of life that flows with the abundant love of a Father’s heart. To get to there, God often brings us to the outer edges of our faith and asks us to trust him for something more…something better…something best. To move beyond our faithless laughter and to find that, indeed, he has postured us for new life even though we are old in years and past the age of believing we can “bear” such newness—a birthing of something far more sacred than routine and life as usual.
God is doing this for me. He is pushing me to the edge of a difficult trust, but it is an edge I am willing to embrace for I know that what awaits me on the other side is something that far exceeds my current—a surpassing and distinguishing “new” that births from an old plan, set in motion before the very foundation of the world.
My daddy is right. The best is yet to be, and so this day, I come to my Father and offer him my “hard.” I’ll ask him for a portion of Eden’s pleasure for God created Eden with my pleasure in mind. And so I pray…
Come, Lord Jesus, and mediate your majesty into my hard. What I deem difficult and even impossible, you deem as a perfect platform for your extraordinary workings. I cannot imagine life beyond my usual. But you can. You did, and now I ask you for the trust that I will need to bring me to my perfected end. Forgive me when I limit your capacity for such a working. Forgive me for the times when I forego your extraordinary in favor of my ordinary and my usual. Humbly, I confess that I sometimes settle for less, even when you have designed me for more. Give me eyes to see, ears to hear, and a mind to conceive that nothing…absolutely nothing…is too hard for you. Amen.
Stay tuned for our fifth and final devotion coming later this week. I welcome your participation by clicking on the word “comment” below and posting your thoughts. If you haven’t visited Liz at Kentucky Bound, you might want to take a look. She lives in Eden! I’m not kidding.
(allrightsreserved, elaineolsen – 2008)
[i] Brown, Driver, Briggs and Gesenius. “Hebrew Lexicon entry for ‘Pala’”. “The Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon”. (http://www.searchgodsword.org/lex/heb/view.cgi?number=6381).
Elaine, thank you for this today, so needed. Several posts have reminded me that NOTHING is impossible with God.
You wrote: It is a difficult trust…this letting go and believing God for our extraordinary. We lose some control with our relinquishment, but what we gain far exceeds what we expect.
I have to hold on to that THROUGH the challenges, unknown, fear etc.. Thanks for this powerful, yet gentle reminder.
Lord, I believe, help me unbelief,
Joy
Elaine,
Good post…you touched so many topics…life being hard, difficulty in trusting, our God being big enough for our problems and our “hards”. I just posted on my blog yesterday about trust. It is hard.
Hey, are you related to Rachel Olsen? I am doing her online Bible Study. You look similar to her and you have the same last name…so I was just curious.
Visit me sometime. I started my blog a few weeks ago and posted about six times. I love to write and my blog as been very fruitful according to the comments. It is just such a blessing to be able to do what I love (write), serve the Lord, and minister to others. I feel so close to the Spirit when I’m writing.
I’ll mark you as a favorite.
Grasping Him,
Paula
Elaine,
Thanks for your comment on my blog. I love how you said “God’s Word is meant to be absorbed into the fabric of our souls until we can recall its power in a moment’s pause.” That’s beautiful.
I hope I didn’t give you and other readers the impression that I have it all together and I am adversed well with trusting humans and God. Everything I said on my blog is true and straight from my heart, but I still struggle very much with trusting God with those things extremely close to my heart…first and foremost is my relationship with my husband (ex legally). I believe I’ve been called to stand in the gap and believe with all my heart that God will restore us. He is a Christian but he has been gravely deceived by Satan. Our covenant was never broken but Satan’s convinced Him otherwise. I say that I struggle with trusting God because I’m fearful that God will not force Chris to turn course and thus my soul mate lost to me forever. I know this is Satan. I am a subscriber to rejoiceministries.org. They are a reunited couple who were divorced for two years and remarried 20 years ago. The Steinkamps have formed this ministry calling standers to stand for their marriage and pray for their prodigal spouse. I know this is what God wants because I know what His word says about divorce and marriage. Satan was the author of this divorce and God was the divine author of uniting us in such a fabulous way. My blog name ‘sweetpea’ is formed from my love relationship with my husband. God clearly joined us together and my husband knows that but Satan has shown a light on my negative and not on God’s power to change a woman and restore a beautiful marriage.
This is really where the formation of my posting came from. Through this trial, I’ve come to see how my long-term and dear friends have abandon me in different ways. I’ve come to see that I cannot and won’t extend trust to everyone. However, I must trust God but it’s scarey. Does that even make sense? How can it be scarey if I know that He has the best in store for me? It is because I know we are dealing with another human in this situation…my husband has free will to choose to continue down the wrong path. That scares me!
Thanks again for commenting but I wanted to clarify that it was never my intention to portray I have it all together and I easily trust. I believe everything I wrote but I find it very difficult. So far, I’ve chosen to try not to make my posts personal and therefore I leave out my feelings so that is strictly scriptural.
See you soon!
Paula
Once again, thank you!
God Bless,
Amy:)
So Elaine….just so you know….if you lived here in Sunny, I would go to your church or have a book club with you at my house and we would study and eat bon-bons. Until then, God Bless your Blog!
Our hard is God’s specialty. Thanks. I am going to lean on that for a while.
Oh Dear Elaine,
Now I am the one chuckeling….you see the reason I said how much we love the folks’ church is that I am so very, very traditional! What I love most is that they do contemporary-style with excellence! 🙂
I’m coming right over for the chocolate stash…
Grins!
Yikes… now I am two entries behind. I am praying for some “down” time soon. I can’t wait to get into it again. Thanks so much, Lynn
Elaine,
You did it once again! Thanks, Elaine for awesome reading.
Dear Elaine,
You are such an amazing writer and you blessed me once again this morning. I am grateful for my “hard” this morning. He is so good!… extraordinary!
Have a great day!
Love,
Angie xoxo
Elaine,
I have so enjoyed reading these posts. This particular part of scripture is very dear to me. I struggled with infertility for years… my journey has not resulted in a child… but my journey is all about trust and that nothing is impossible with God.
Every once in a while I will read a scripture lesson during church. Last July I had to read this particular portion of scripture. When I opened my Bible and began to read I laughed! Like Sarah! I said to myself – how can I stand up at the pulpit and read this? Years ago while struggling w/ infertility I could have only cried while reading about Sarah and the gift of a child. Last July, after service… several friends asked if I had a hard time reading these verses. I quickly replied “no” – what stands out to me now is verse 14 – Is anything too hard for the Lord? No, nothing is too hard for the Lord. My story might not have included the birth of a child, but it shouts about God’s goodness! What God did for me… He healed a broken heart. He filled a place that I only thought a child would fill. He showed me how to listen and look for His answers to my prayers. He taught me to trust Him – and Believe Him!
I too hold on to my “hard” which my doubt always seems to amaze me. Jeremiah 32:17 is one of my favorite verses..so much so it was on the back of our wedding bulletin the ushers handed out.
I just need to trust in the God I love with my all~easy or hard.
Blessings,
Lelia
“So when my spirit is confronted with the sacred truth from a Holy God, who always breathes a message of something better, my flesh often retreats behind the wall of doubt. The echoes of my faithless laughter drown out the whispers of his faith-filled promises.”
This quote from your message so perfectly describes what I experienced last week. Amidst a stressful, tiring and emotional (hormonal)week, Satan whispered doubt into my heart about two situations I have long prayed over, and had completely given over to the Lord (with peace, I might add) and yet, my flesh bought into his doubt and deception. After several days of praying and seeking discernment and clarification from the Lord, my heart is once again at peace. Peace, regardless of the outcome.
Thank you for sharing these incredible messages. I SO look forward to part 5. Your abundant gifts of the written word are all the more precious because of your beautiful heart.
Thank you for speaking such truth to me.
Thanking God for you…
Tracy
Elaine,
Thanking God for speaking so literally to your need through today’s posting. (Thank you for sharing that!) Praying right along with you as you mail and “let go” of those manuscripts tomorrow… May you leave the post office feeling (like Hannah and Dr. Payson), filled with joy and light of heart.
Blessings,
Tracy
You know what amazes me? Here I am reading this again over 8 months after my first visit to this post, and God speaks a new word. “God did not land our lives on planet earth so that we could just “pass through” into our next. While here, he means for us to live.”
If you’ve read my comment on your current post, you’ll know I’ve been struggling with the “passing through”. God is calling me to live…live where He has placed me now, taking “hold of that which is life indeed.” 1 Timothy 6:19b
Thanks for directing my thoughts here tonight friend.
Love ya,
Joy
PS. Glad you’re feeling better. Praying.