Sarah

Genesis 17-21

There is so much to unpack with Sarah. She is the wife of Abraham, the Father of Israel. If you’re familiar with the story, most of us remember or were taught that God changed the name of Abram to Abraham when he made the covenant, but something I didn’t realize is that God also changed his wife’s name to Sarah from Sarai. I found this interesting and confusing at first because Sarah & Sarai both mean “princess.” I wondered why God would bother changing her name to something that meant the same thing, and then it hit me: God was about to make her a princess with a kingdom. By giving her a name that still meant “princess,” God was affirming in her that her name was no accident. She may not have seen the fruit yet, but God was going to use her to be the mother of His Kingdom & start the line which the King of Kings would be born from!

Sarah was 90 years old when she received the promise of a son. We don’t get to hear about the other 89 years of her life, but I wonder if she had spent them praying for children. I wonder if she had begun living in the identity that the world had given her: barren.

Sometimes, that is an easy identity to take on. We pray and pray for something, and when it doesn’t come, we sink into the disappointment & suddenly no fruit can grow in our lives.

I imagine Sarah may have found herself in this place before, so when she heard that she was supposed to give birth at the age of 90, I can understand why her first response was doubt. “She laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?”’ Genesis 18:12. Sarah had the wrong view of herself. She saw herself as “worn-out,” and her wrong view of herself became a lens through which she began to view God. Instead of thinking about who God was, she began to get caught up in who she wasn’t. Relate? Me too.

The absolute beautiful thing about our God, though, is that Sarah’s doubt did not stop God’s calling on her life. God knew how long she had waited. He knew she was only human. So, his response to her doubt was “ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son” Genesis 18:14.

In Mark 9, there is a father asking for his son to be freed of the demons possessing him. When Jesus tells him anything is possible for those who believe, he responds with “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). The son is freed despite his father’s doubt.

God has not called you to never doubt; He has called you to never stop asking Him to help you overcome your doubt.

When we sink into our doubt, we’re left barren. When we fight it, we open the door for a miracle.