Tag Archives: abraham and sarah

Charles Stanley – Experiencing God’s Faithfulness

August 31, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

What is the secret to enjoying the Lord’s best for your life? Whole-hearted obedience. Let’s study the story of Abraham to explore the rewards of following God’s voice and the consequences of disobedience.

Note: Abraham and Sarah are first introduced in Scripture as Abram and Sarai. God changed their names when He made a special covenant with them, which is described in Genesis 17. For simplicity, this Bible study uses the names “Abraham” and “Sarah.”

When God asks us to obey, He doesn’t always reveal the details. Read Genesis 12:1-3. Where did the Lord tell Abraham to go?

What enabled him to take such a risk? (Hebrews 11:8-9)
What is the definition of faith, according to Hebrews 11:1?

Hebrews 11:6 says “he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”

What did the Lord promise Abraham? (Genesis 12:2-3)
Has your heavenly Father ever asked you to do something that seemed illogical to you at the time? If so, what did your experience teach you?

God’s guidance will not contradict His ways or His Word. Read Genesis 12:10-20.

What did Abraham do instead of trusting the Lord to take care of him? (Genesis 12:13)

Although the patriarch did not have the Bible or even the Ten Commandments, he knew his action was wrong.

In what area of your life are you currently tempted to disobey God instead of trusting Him? Explain your temptation.
What do you think God would have you do instead of trying to solve the problem using your own effort or reasoning?

When we disobey, other people suffer. In Genesis 15:4, God promises Abraham a son, not just an heir. But years later, Sarah is still childless.
God often gives us a second chance to obey. Some opportunities come only once in a lifetime. Once we miss them, they are gone forever. But many times, our gracious Father offers us another chance.
The Lord may ask us to surrender the dreams and plans He gives us. Read the story of the sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22:1-14.

What did she suggest to Abraham? (Genesis 16:2)
What were some of the negative consequences of his action? (Genesis 16:4-6; 11-12)
When you live for yourself instead of seeking to follow God, how are those around you negatively affected?

What did Abraham do with his second chance in Genesis 20:1-13?
What three reasons does he give for using deception?
How are his excuses similar to the excuses we might use to justify sin?
Is God giving you a second chance? What is He asking you to do?

Why did God ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac? (Genesis 22:12)

We can begin to value God-given possessions, relationships, dreams, or even ministry more than we treasure our relationship with Him. This is a form of idolatry.

What are the warning signs that a God-given gift has become too important?
Is God asking you to release an idol to Him so that He has your whole-hearted devotion? You may need to give it up literally or just surrender control of it in your heart. Write a prayer expressing your feelings and yielding to the lordship of Christ.

The rewards of obedience can last for generations. Because Abraham obeyed God, he became the father of the people of Israel. Years later, his descendants gave birth to the Messiah, through whom the entire world was blessed (Genesis 17: 4-8; Genesis 22:18).

How would you like to be remembered by your children and grandchildren (or by the next generation)?
What can you do in this next year to be one step closer to making that kind of impact on your world?

Closing: Like Abraham, you may impact the lives of those whom you never meet. Be obedient to God’s request, even if it doesn’t make sense from a worldly point of view. Perhaps the sacrifices you make today for Christ’s sake will bless others for generations to come.

Prayer: Father, I’m so grateful that You have a purpose and a plan for my life. Please reveal Your will to me and empower me to obey it willingly and faithfully. Increase my faith that I may be a blessing to the world around me for Your sake and for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Related Resources

Joyce Meyer – Why Does God Wait So Long?

July 14, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

All things are possible with God. —Matthew 19:26

When God came to Abraham and told him that He was going to bless him, Abraham said to God, “That’s fine, but what I really want is a son.” God said, “I am going to give you what you ask for,” but He didn’t give it to Abraham right away. The Word says, Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born (Genesis 21:5). Actually, twenty years went by from the time God promised Abraham that he would have a child to the time that child was born. In fact, Abraham was already old when God first gave him the promise of a son.

By the time Abraham fathered that child, his wife had already gone through the change of life. She had a barren womb. So Abraham and Sarah not only had a prayer request, they also needed a miracle.

Isn’t it interesting that sometimes when you ask God for something, He lets it go so long, the only thing that can possibly produce what you asked for is a miracle? Why does God do that? Because He likes to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are blameless toward Him (2 Chronicles 16:9).

When Martha and Mary sent for Jesus to come and minister to their brother, Lazarus, who was gravely ill, why did Jesus wait two days longer, until Lazarus had actually died and was buried, before He went and raised Lazarus from the dead? It was because Jesus already knew what He was going to do for Lazarus.

If something is dead—a dream, a desire, a want, a need—it doesn’t matter to God how dead it is. God can still bring it back to life in His timing because our God is an awesome God. Nothing is too hard for Him. That is why He is never in a hurry and why it seems as if He often waits until nothing will work but a miracle.

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Looking to the Future

November 18, 2013 broboinhawaii 1 Comment

“By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised; therefore, also, there was born of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore” (Heb. 11:11-12).

I’ve been blessed with a wonderful Christian heritage. In fact, I’m the fifth generation of preachers in our family. The faith of my predecessors has had an enormous impact on my life– either directly or indirectly. I have the same responsibility they did to influence others for good–as do you.

Hebrews 11:11-12 gives a very personal example of how one man’s faith influenced an entire nation. Verse 11 is better rendered: “By faith Abraham, even though he was past age–and Sarah herself was barren–was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise” (NIV).

God had promised Abraham that he would become the father of a great nation (Gen. 12:2). But Sarah, Abraham’s wife, had always been barren, and both of them were advanced in years. At one point Sarah became impatient and decided to take things into her own hands. She persuaded Abraham to have a son by her maid, Hagar (16:1-4). That act of disobedience proved to be costly because Ishmael, the child of that union, became the progenitor of the Arab people, who have been constant antagonists of the Jewish nation.

Despite his times of disobedience, Abraham believed that God would keep His promise. God honored Abraham’s faith by giving him not only Isaac, the child of promise, but descendants too numerous to count. One man’s faith literally changed the world.

Similarly, the faith you exercise today will influence others tomorrow. So be faithful and remember: despite your failures, God “is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Eph. 3:20).

Suggestions for Prayer:

Thank God for those who have had a righteous influence on you.

Pray for greater opportunities to influence others for Christ.

For Further Study:

Read the account of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 18-21 and 23.

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Ravi Zacharias Ministry – The Patience of Salvation

March 5, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

More often than I’d care to admit, I find that I am in a hurry. Now, it’s not the typical kind of hurrying—rushing to get into the ten items or less lane at the grocery story, speeding through traffic, or running around juggling four or five tasks at a time. It’s more an inability to be present to my life as it is right now. So often I find that no matter the circumstances, I’m hurrying through them, wondering or worrying what is next.

This pattern of hurrying through life to the “next event” seems fairly typical and engrained from a young age. When I was a child, I couldn’t wait to be a teenager. When I was a teenager, I couldn’t wait to be in college. When I was in college, I couldn’t wait to be a graduate student. When I was a graduate student, I couldn’t wait to be a professional. I look back on those hurried days now and lament that I rushed through them so quickly.

Of course, our efficiency-driven society doesn’t help our propensity towards hurrying through life. We live in an “instant” society, and our increasingly rapid technological developments only add to our impatience when things are not achieved instantaneously. While technology has greatly improved many aspects of our lives, I recognize that my own propensity to hurry, coupled with a society that moves at ever-quickening speeds, can be very detrimental for making myself present to right now. If my focus is consistently on the next event or milestone and if I want to get there with increasing speed, I cannot focus on the space that is now, nor can I be content.

The lives depicted in the Bible couldn’t be more different from our hurried lives. More importantly, and perhaps to our great frustration, the God revealed in the biblical stories is rarely in a hurry. Abraham and Sarah, for example, received the promise of an heir twenty-five years before they actually laid eyes on Isaac. Joseph had a dream as a seventeen year-old that his brothers would one day bow down to him. Yet it was countless years and many difficulties later that his brothers would come and kneel before him, asking for food. Moses was eighty years old—long past his prime of life—when God appeared to him in the burning bush and called him to deliver the children of Israel. David was anointed king by Samuel as a young boy tending his father’s flocks, long before he finally ascended to the throne. And Jesus spent thirty years in relative obscurity, not involved in public ministry, and only three years announcing the kingdom and God’s rule in his life and ministry.

Perhaps both from a Christian perspective and a skeptical one, it is difficult to understand why God wouldn’t be more in a hurry rushing to accomplish divine plans and purposes, not only in these individuals’ lives, but also in the work of redemption. The Messiah was prophesied hundreds of years before he actually arrived on the scene. We cannot help but ask why God seems to move so slowly?

In Peter’s second letter, what is considered his last will and testament, he discusses the slowness of God in relation to the second coming of Christ. Many arose even in Peter’s time asking why God was so slow when it came to delivering on his promise of an eternal kingdom. They began to mock God assuming that “as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be.” Not so, Peter argues, for the slowness of God is in fact our salvation. “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance… Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation” (2 Peter 3:9, 14-15).

The long, slow, journey through the forty days prior to Easter morning can also seem an arduous time for those of us who find ourselves in a hurry, racing towards the empty tomb and resurrection life. But these forty days can serve to remind us of God’s great forbearance and patience with us, even as they hearken to us to enter the wild spaces of wilderness waiting with Jesus. These days intentionally slow us and create space—what theologians call liminal space—making room for those of us who rush to wait and rest in the “in-between” and the “not yet” for God to act. Waiting for God in this liminal space gives us more opportunity to be patient—learning to regard, as Peter says, the patience of our Lord to be salvation.

Margaret Manning is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Seattle, Washington.

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Unwanted Gifts – Ravi Zacharias

December 27, 2012 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

There’s an amusing commercial airing in Atlanta this Christmas season. Five friends gather around a fireplace to exchange gifts. When one recipient opens her package, she exclaims with a fake beauty contestant smile, “Oh, a kitty book! Now everyone will know I’m still single! Yeah!” Another chimes in enthusiastically about his unwanted gift, “Oh man! This is gonna go straight in the trash!” No one is subtle about their jovial dislike of what they receive, and so the narrator advises, “Give a better gift this year.”

Besides the obvious humor, the advertisement’s appeal highlights our own cognitive dissonance. While we may share similar feelings about certain gifts, few of us would blurt out, “What were you thinking?!” And yet, sometimes we may not hesitate to say such words to God.

I am reminded of the story of Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, which Luke records in the first chapter of his Gospel. Elizabeth is barren and they are both well advanced in years. Unlike Abraham and Sarah—and even Simeon—as far as we know, Zechariah and Elizabeth have not been given any promise of a child. They are living in a period of silence, as some Bible scholars call it: it has been over 400 years since God spoke of a coming Redeemer and his forerunner through the prophet Malachi. Nevertheless, Zechariah and Elizabeth hold onto God; as Luke tells us, “Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly” (Luke 1:6).

Year after year faithful Zechariah serves in the temple, and one day the lots fall to him to perform the evening offering—a once in a lifetime privilege. He is alone at the altar of incense when suddenly the angel Gabriel appears. “When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear,” writes Luke. “But the angel said to him: ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord’” (Luke 1:11-15a). Gabriel adds that John will go before the Lord to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (verse 17).

The name John is significant because none of Zechariah’s relatives share this name and, as it is still today, it was customary to name a firstborn son after his father.(1)John is a Greek form of the Hebrew phrase Yohanan, meaning “God is gracious.” Hebrew scholar Skip Moen offers this insight about the word gracious:

This single word describes an elaborate picture. It creates an image of two parties; one who has a gift to give and the other who is in desperate need of the gift. However, the imagery does not convey the idea that the giver patronizes the recipient with the needed gift. There is no suggestion of condescension here. Rather, the picture is one of a deep, heartfelt concern on the part of the giver so that the gift is granted not from anything that the recipient may negotiate or earn but out of compelling mercy. When the Old Testament uses this verb of God, it conveys the idea of God’s unmerited but nevertheless unlimited love for His children. God willingly favors us with His love and blessings entirely because He chooses to pour His mercy upon us.(2)

Strangely, Gabriel’s announcement to Zechariah that God has answered his prayer is met with distrust: “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” Indeed, Zechariah rejects the very gift he has longed for because he is completely focused on wanting tangible proof of this promise. Perhaps this is because he and his wife have lived for decades with disappointment and heartache—barrenness in their culture symbolized shame, scorn, and God’s supposed disapproval. Whatever his reason, he is struck dumb until Elizabeth gives birth and they bring the child to the temple where Zechariah encountered Gabriel. There Zechariah acknowledges God’s gracious gift and “to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, ‘His name is John.’Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God.”

The Christmas season and namely, the asking for and receiving of gifts, often taps into our deepest hopes and fears. Maybe you can sympathize with Zechariah’s initial refusal to receive the good that God offers him. You have known disappointment and loss. You may be grateful for untold blessings but still wonder why God doesn’t answer a particular prayer. Or, you may be hesitant or even resistant to hope in a God who is unpredictable.

In such places, the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth—or of Abraham, Hannah, and Joseph—can speak intimately into our lives. And then there are those around us, like quadriplegic Joni Eareckson Tada, who sees her wheelchair and recent cancer as a gift, for they have “pushed her deeper into [God’s] embrace…convincing her that she’d rather be in her chair knowing Him, than on her feet without Him.”(3) Those are sobering words and a gift few of us would want to receive. But perhaps, as we consider the Christmas story, we might discover gifts shining with the brightness and magnitude of a God who,

has come to his people and redeemed them…

to give his people the knowledge of salvation

through the forgiveness of their sins,

because of [his] tender mercy…

by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven

to shine on those living in darkness

and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the path of peace.(4)

Danielle DuRant is director of research and writing at RZIM.

(1) See Luke 1:59-61.

(2) http://skipmoen.com/tag/gracious/

(3) See Joni speaking about her life at http://www.joniandfriends.org/television/id-rather-be-wheelchair-knowing-him/. Regarding her cancer, see Joni & Ken: An Untold Love Story (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013).

(4) Luke 1:68, 77-79.

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