Kingdom HeroesSýnishorn

“And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.” (Hebrews 11:11)

Our next exhibit in the Hall of Heroes illustrates this truth in a dramatic fashion. This hero’s name is Sarah. She started life as Sarai, and she married Abraham, who, again, began life as Abram. 

God promised both Sarah and Abraham a son. God did this the same time he changed Sarah’s name:

As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her (Genesis 17:15-16).

Not only was Sarah 90, but she’d been barren her entire life. She’d never conceived or given birth to a child. Her physical capacity to do so was absent, and time was no longer on her side. So this promise from God simply didn’t fit the facts of her life. It wasn’t practical.

It’s possible that Sarah’s story resembles your own but in a different way. You could be barren in other forms. Your capacity to experience what God has for you just doesn’t seem to be there. You’re not producing what you thought you would be at this stage in your life. You’re not delivering on the destiny you believed to be yours. You’ve heard Jesus’ promise in John 10:10, when He declared, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” But you don’t see the results of that promise in your everyday life.

If that describes your current state of mind, know that Sarah was right where you are. Five times God had told her she was going to have a son. Not only that, but He’d gone on to tell Abraham and her that, through this son, a whole nation would be birthed. Sarah had a vision for a great future. Yet the clock kept taunting her, tempting her to give up and doubt God. If we were to look closely, we’d see that many of our lives look like this—like our ability to be what God wants us to be, to do what God wants us to do, and to achieve what God wants us to achieve no longer exists. 

Whatever the case, if you feel like too much time has passed to get to experience the fulfillment of Christ’s promise of an abundant and fulfilling life, I encourage you to never let the facts get in the way of your faith. Don’t deny the facts—facts are facts—but just know that faith is never limited to facts alone. Facts always involve what you see. Faith involves what you don’t see.