I\u2019ve never been pregnant. I\u2019ve come to terms with the fact that, like Sarah (or Rachel or Hannah) in the Bible, I have been given the burden of infertility, a weight that I\u2019ve kicked and railed against and sobbed about and finally, dutifully picked up\u2014mostly because I had no other option. I don\u2019t know if I will ever have a child born from my own body, but I know that if I did, I would join right along with Sarah in laughing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God\u2019s timing is perfect and sometimes pretty funny too. To think, Sarah had waited her whole life to have children, and only once her family was in disarray and spread out across miles did God choose to follow through on His great promise. After everything that happened, why now? Perhaps because when she was at her weakest, He showed His great strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bible is full of humans, not heroes. We see in Genesis 20 a story of fear, when Abraham tried to hide and protect his wife Sarah by claiming that she was his sister, only to nearly cause a massive tidal wave of destruction for Abimelech. What followed in close succession was Sarah finally giving birth to the child God promised: Isaac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But even amidst the laughter and celebration, a shadow hovered over this family. After all, they didn\u2019t wait patiently for God to follow through on His promise. Earlier in their marriage, Sarah encouraged her husband to have an affair with Hagar in order to bear a child. So she couldn\u2019t fully enjoy God\u2019s faithfulness because the proof of her unfaithfulness was right there at the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are we any different? When God is good to you, what do you focus on? Are you wholeheartedly clinging to His goodness, or do you still see, out of the corner of your eye, glimpses and reminders of your own sin, lack, and shame? We see the answer in the second half of chapter 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even when Sarah sent Hagar and Ishmael away in a fit of rage, God continued to be good to them. He is loving and saving and kind\u2014because that is who He is. It doesn\u2019t matter if you see yourself as a promised child or a child whose background is questionable. None of this is conditional on who we are or what we\u2019ve done but rather on who He is as a faithful promise-keeper. He has promised to forgive our sins and guide our hearts, leading wherever He pleases (Proverbs 21:1). He promises to give us everything we need for life and godliness (1Peter 1:3). He promises to come for us and not to leave us as orphans (John 14:18). The Lord did for Sarah all that He had promised. The Lord will keep His promises to us as well. That is who He is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve never been pregnant. I\u2019ve come to terms with the fact that, like Sarah (or Rachel or Hannah) in the Bible, I have been given the burden of infertility, a weight that I\u2019ve kicked and railed against and sobbed about and finally, dutifully picked up\u2014mostly because I had no other option. I don\u2019t know if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":71767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[294],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genesis25"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[71878],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"She Reads Truth","devotional_text":"THE BIRTH OF ISAAC<\/b>
\r\nby Claire Gibson<\/i>
\r\n
I\u2019ve never been pregnant. I\u2019ve come to terms with the fact that, like Sarah (or Rachel or Hannah) in the Bible, I have been given the burden of infertility, a weight that I\u2019ve kicked and railed against and sobbed about and finally, dutifully picked up\u2014mostly because I had no other option. I don\u2019t know if I will ever have a child born from my own body, but I know that if I did, I would join right along with Sarah in laughing.<\/p>
\r\n
God\u2019s timing is perfect and sometimes pretty funny too. To think, Sarah had waited her whole life to have children, and only once her family was in disarray and spread out across miles did God choose to follow through on His great promise. After everything that happened, why now? Perhaps because when she was at her weakest, He showed His great strength.<\/p>
\r\n
The Bible is full of humans, not heroes. We see in Genesis 20 a story of fear, when Abraham tried to hide and protect his wife Sarah by claiming that she was his sister, only to nearly cause a massive tidal wave of destruction for Abimelech. What followed in close succession was Sarah finally giving birth to the child God promised: Isaac.<\/p>
\r\n
But even amidst the laughter and celebration, a shadow hovered over this family. After all, they didn\u2019t wait patiently for God to follow through on His promise. Earlier in their marriage, Sarah encouraged her husband to have an affair with Hagar in order to bear a child. So she couldn\u2019t fully enjoy God\u2019s faithfulness because the proof of her unfaithfulness was right there at the party.<\/p>
\r\n
Are we any different? When God is good to you, what do you focus on? Are you wholeheartedly clinging to His goodness, or do you still see, out of the corner of your eye, glimpses and reminders of your own sin, lack, and shame? We see the answer in the second half of chapter 21.<\/p>
\r\n
Even when Sarah sent Hagar and Ishmael away in a fit of rage, God continued to be good to them. He is loving and saving and kind\u2014because that is who He is. It doesn\u2019t matter if you see yourself as a promised child or a child whose background is questionable. None of this is conditional on who we are or what we\u2019ve done but rather on who He is as a faithful promise-keeper. He has promised to forgive our sins and guide our hearts, leading wherever He pleases (Proverbs 21:1). He promises to give us everything we need for life and godliness (1Peter 1:3). He promises to come for us and not to leave us as orphans (John 14:18). The Lord did for Sarah all that He had promised. The Lord will keep His promises to us as well. That is who He is.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"15","scripture":"Genesis 20:1-18, Genesis 21:1-34, Psalm 34:1-22, Romans 9:6-9","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}