Fulfillment of the Impossible

Genesis 21:5–6

AT LONG LAST, at the appointed time, Abraham and Sarah received the fulfillment of God’s promise. Ninety-year-old Sarah gave birth to a son and, in obedience to God, named him Isaac, which means “he laughs.” Years earlier, when God had told Abraham that Sarah would give birth to a son, he fell over laughing. When God came again to announce, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!” (Genesis 18:10), Sarah, too, laughed in disbelief. She was the age of most great-grandmothers by that time. Neither she nor Abraham could imagine her birthing and nursing her own infant.

When God accomplished the impossible through this aging couple, their disbelieving snickering became joyful laughter . . . laughter of pleasure and praise. They now saw greater meaning in the name Isaac.

Nothing occurs outside God’s plan, and everything happens exactly at the time He planned it to happen. That’s what theologians mean when they apply the term sovereignty to God. He has a plan, and He has the power and the will to carry it out.

Some people don’t like the concept of sovereignty and the existence of a foreordained, divine plan. It makes them feel unimportant, as though they don’t have a say in their own destiny. But God’s foreordained plan does not reduce us to robots who must follow a program.

We grow up when we look at God’s plan not as something that diminishes humanity by taking away our free will but as a means by which He will restore true freedom—and carry out His impossible plans.

REFLECT

What impossible things has God done in your life in the past? What does it mean to you that God is sovereign?

I have made the Sovereign LORD my shelter, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.

PSALM 73:28