At the Appointed Time

"Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son” (Genesis 18:14, NIV).

A while back I received as a gift a book on women of the Bible. I pulled it off the bookshelf at home, and have been spending some time reading and studying the lives of these women who impacted history in significant ways. Sarai, the wife of Abraham, was the subject of my study recently. 

Many of you know her story as it relates to the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis to make him the father of many nations. This would require an heir, but Sarah had been unable to conceive. Often in our waiting we try to take matters into our own hands. That’s exactly what happens when Sarah tells her husband, Abraham, to sleep with their slave, Hagar.

How many of us have been like Sarah? We think we know best, so we try to make decisions that we believe will impact the outcome of God’s story. May I remind you of this truth today: God doesn’t need us to accomplish any of His purposes.

Sarah found this out the hard way. But in His goodness, the Lord redeemed their story. Though I’ve read this story plenty of times, Genesis 18:14 caught my eye and my heart in a way that it hadn’t before: 

"Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son".

With just a few words, God spoke into existence the promise of a son for Sarah and Abraham. Not just any son, Isaac would be the beginning of a lineage that led to the birth of the Messiah, the Savior of the World, Jesus Christ. 

Things didn’t go as Sarah and Abraham planned. In their humanness, they both made terrible decisions in an attempt to impact the outcome of God’s plan for their lives. We’re all often guilty of self-sabotage. But God.

I’d encourage you to spend some time in Genesis reading through the entire story, but ultimately, my message today is this: “at the appointed time” may be one of the most important lines in the Bible. 

When you don’t pass the exam the first time.

When you don’t get the promotion.

When you experience heartbreak at the hands of a breakup.

When a promise remains unfulfilled.

Applied broadly to our lives, we can be reminded that God’s timing is always better. Instead of trying to take matters into our own hands, we can choose to be patient, do the things God has called us to do, and leave the outcome up to Him. Is anything too hard for the Lord?