And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then He said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:4-6

When God gives us our promise we are so taken back in the moment, it’s almost surreal. We at that moment have no other thought in out mind other than excitement and love. But in our earthly minds time is our biggest enemy. As the clock ticks, we wonder if God has forgotten about us or His promise. That’s when satan uses the what if’s from all types of thoughts and ideas that fertilizes the seeds of doubt that he so loves to water. At this time we are starting to brain storm new ideas to fuel the proverbial “Plan B”. This enables us to quickly release the feelings of shame or stupidity. But also this counters the feelings with what we think is productive towards His divine plan. What we need most during these moments is quiet time with God, so that He may guide our next move. But most often we grab life by the reigns and drive on with our own way to fulfill His promise. Our doubt is in full effect when we are convincing our own minds of being unqualified. Like we know better than God and His wisdom. I heard a pastor once say, “God doesn’t call qualified people, for if He did, we wouldn’t see His hand in the miracle.”

Sarah plays two roles in the story, she fuels the doubt in Abraham’s promise by giving him Hagar in Genesis 16 and She laughed at Gods promise in her doubt of being qualified to birth a child in Genesis 18. This has not changed from the times of Abraham till now. There will always be people who will change our direction if we allow them and others will laugh at the promise we receive. This is because they have neither heard, received or believed in their own promise. So in their envy or doubt they rule out the calling to mere craziness. Remember the God of the universe told you the promise and purpose He has in store for you. who could take that from you? Don’t let shame or any other tool of the devil trick you out of your birthright.

As for being unqualified, God will place many events along the way to test and challenge you. This is where growth and experience is obtained. Faith is the big ticket in our purpose and it will be challenged multiple times throughout the process. The beauty in it all is the road you will take and what an experience you have to look back on respecting the Father for gifting such a journey. The amazing thing about the not so wonderful journey is that with out all the challenges, we wouldn’t have the strength to endure the reward.
God tested Abrahams faith all the way up to the point of pulling the blade to sacrifice His son In Genesis 22:8-13. So few make it to the last few inches of test due to a lack of faith. So many make it to the point at any second God’s reward is about to be poured out upon them and they cash in the promise for ease and no troubles. If they could have taken one more step, or gained a few feet more in ground, they would have had the reward of a lifetime, but they found their limit in faith. Some never cross into the promise land. Some reject it and some die in faith. The question I would like to ask them is: if they knew they were in the wilderness for forty years what would they do differently to see their promise.

Just a few points I walked away from this story with:

• God has a promise for all of His children
• Our doubt causes us to loose time and brings hardship
• Our vision of Gods plan doesn’t fix anything but brings another unforeseen factor into the mix
• People who knew us before we found Jesus and after will doubt His promise on our lives
• God will test our faith at one point or another
• God’s blessing is the blossom of promise and its reward is closer than you think
• Fruit is produced when we carry out His plan