Have you ever studied the people in the Bible and wondered at their faith and how they believed so solidly in God? We have all these amazing examples of people who believed in God, and many of those people did great things. There was Daniel in the lion’s den and David defeating Goliath and Joseph moving from a prison to a man of great influence and Esther saving her people to name just a few. However, we have to remember these people were human, not just Bible characters. They had to live through their story not knowing how it would end. I am sure they had many doubts and opportunities of unbelief along the way. God is asking us to do the same as these people who came before us. He is asking us to believe in Him and live through our story even though we don’t know how it will end. What does that require? It requires faith.
Hebrews 11 in the Bible is often referred to as the Faith Hall of Fame. The writer of Hebrews is exhorting the readers of Hebrews to be in faith and grow in faith. He begins Chapter 11 with this verse (NKJV), “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The Passion Translation puts it this way, “Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen.” We need faith to not only believe in Jesus but also to believe His promises are true even when we don’t yet see the evidence of His promises. Chapter 11 in Hebrews goes on to list people who showed great faith and believed in God’s promises made to them.
One such person listed in Hebrews 11 is Sarah. If you read the story of Abraham and Sarah beginning in Genesis 12, we see that Abraham and Sarah left everything behind that they knew and set off to an unknown land because they had faith in what God had told Abraham. Over time, God continued to visit Abraham and reaffirmed His promise to Abraham that he would have an heir and also many descendants. Let’s put ourselves in Sarah’s shoes for a moment. Can you imagine what Sarah must have felt during this time? Her husband had received these wonderful promises from God, and she was barren and moving well beyond child bearing age. If I was Sarah, I probably would have struggled with unbelief, doubt, wondering what I had done wrong to displease God, and I definitely would have felt disqualified from this promise. There had to be a lot of insecurity for Sarah. We see some evidence of this when Sarah attempted to use her servant Hagar to fulfill the promise from God. However, this was not God’s plan and this attempt to take matters into their own hands had consequences for all involved. In Genesis 18, when Sarah is well into her nineties, we see the true state of Sarah’s heart. Some men pay Abraham a visit. Abraham and Sarah prepared them a meal and took care of them. The men asked about Sarah and then prophecy to Abraham that Sarah will have a child by the same time next year. When Sarah overheard this, she laughed. She didn’t laugh out of joy. She laughed out of disbelief saying, “An old woman like me? Get pregnant? With this old man of a husband?” Genesis 18:2 (Msg). To make matters worse, when the men confronted her and asked her why she laughed, she denied it and said she did not laugh. This is not exactly a picture of great faith, but it is human.
I think Sarah’s story is not only a story of faith but one of redemption. After Sarah laughed in disbelief and then denied it, God did not take the promise from her. In a year, a child was indeed born to Abraham and Sarah. God performed a miracle allowing Sarah to conceive and bear a child, a child of promise. If we move back to Hebrews 11, Sarah is mentioned beginning in verse 11, “Sarah’s faith embraced God’s miracle power to conceive even though she was barren and was past the age of childbearing, for the authority of her faith rested in the One who made the promise, and she tapped into his faithfulness.” (The Passion Translation) This is a very different picture than the denying, disbelieving Sarah we see in Genesis. What does that mean? I think it means that at some point Sarah repented and chose to have faith in God and believe in God for the promise. Despite the way her circumstances looked, she exchanged her disbelief and doubt for faith. What Hebrews shows us is that God does not view Sarah as a doubting and disbelieving person. He views her as someone worthy to be celebrated as having great faith! How amazing is that?
Is there an area of your life you are struggling with doubt? Do you know that you can do an exchange with God? Go to Him and tell Him you want to trade your doubt for faith. He absolutely loves to help us grow in faith. Your faith may start small, but the more you cultivate it and nurture it through prayer and worship to God your faith will grow. The moment you realize you are slipping back into doubt, take the doubt back to God and allow him to exchange it for more faith. He really wants to do that for you! Remember God is always for us not against us. He wants to partner with us in our lives. He loves us more than we can imagine.