Stress Test Devotional May 4
May 04, 2024
GENESIS 15:5 | 5 He brought him outside and said, “Look
toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
GENESIS 17:1-2 | 1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God
Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and you and will make you
exceedingly numerous.”
GENESIS 18:14 | 14 Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.”
GENESIS 21:1-2 | 1The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. 2 Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him.
I am glad Abraham and Sarah are models of both faith and doubt. I am relieved that they embrace a great spiritual adventure and also shrink from it. I am glad and relieved because their failures echo my own struggles, and because God continued to bless and encourage them despite their fear and cynicism.
He did so by reiterating the promise. On numerous occasions He repeated it, to reinforce the reality of their adventure.
Then He fulfilled it! Then Sarah felt queasy, began to gain weight, and it was time to argue about baby names. In a wonderful reference to their own spiritual struggles, they picked Isaac, which means laughter. This time the humor was joyous, grateful, and without a trace of cynicism.
Do you trust God to be faithful even when we are doubtful?
