When Abraham was 75 years old and his wife Sarah 65, God tells them to leave their country and people. To go to a land God will show them and that their offspring shall be as numerous as the stars in the sky. They obey God and 24 years later three messengers come to Abraham and Sarah and announced that next year Sarah will have a son (Genesis 18:9-15).
Sarah laughs when she hears this announcement. One year later in Genesis 21:1-7, at 90 years old, Sarah has a son and she laughs again. What did God expect for 25 years? He wanted them to wait.
There are two things I know about waiting, God likes it and we don't. A lot of Christians aren't very good at waiting, we want it now, we want it instantly. Is God telling you right now to wait? If He is, know that two temptations will come.
The first one is to do something. That's what happened to Sarah after 10 years. In Genesis Chapter 16, Sarah tells Abraham to sleep with her maidservant so they could build a family through her. The Lord knows waiting is hard for us; but he also knows it's the only way He's going to get you to that place of trust. He allows you to wait so that He would accomplish something in your life. When you wait for what God wants for you, you get what you never could have gotten for yourself.
The other temptation in waiting is to doubt God. When Sarah hears that she's going to have a son in a year, she laughs. The laugh was a sarcastic laugh that was birthed from waiting so many years with doubt rising each year at the unfulfilled promise of God. If God promised a baby " guess what? A baby is coming because God keeps his promises. God promises that He will never leave you or forsake you. Guess what? He will never leave or forsake you. God always comes through and God always fulfills His promises, He's always reliable and He can always be trusted.
Sarah's laugh in Genesis 18 was sarcastic. "Right, at 90 years old I'm going to have a baby." She laughs again in Genesis 21:6-7 after she gives birth to her son. Now, rather than the laughter of sarcasm, it's the joyful laughter of a believer, the laughter of trust. Every one of us hopefully are laughing the laugh of trust and not the laugh of sarcasm. Now Sarah sees God's hand and she's filled with awe and laughing with the laugh of trust in the fulfilled promise. Not only that, but in Genesis 21: 7 Sarah says everyone laughed because who would have thought this could happen to 90-year-old woman? The answer is nobody would have thought this could happen. Why did everybody who saw it have the same response? Because they realized there was only one explanation " this had to be God! We can laugh the laugh of trust because we know that God's power is at work in our lives.
Have the laugh of faith to laugh whether your wanting or waiting or just in awe of God because you know that God's at work in your life and that God's power can't be stopped and God's ways, even though we don't understand them, are the best ways and He will always come through with his promises.
Ron Mogab is pastor of Cornerstone Christian Fellowship and is a member of the Carson Valley Ministers' Association.
