From Promise to Fulfilment

Have you received promises from God that are yet to come to pass? Often when you receive a promise, it is received in times of uncertainty and barrenness without a clear view of how it could come to pass. If it could easily be achieved and you see a pathway to fulfilment with your own intellect, labor and resources, how can it be God and how can God get the glory? What do you do in the waiting? How do you move forward when all you see is the reality of your barrenness and cannot visualize how the breakthrough might happen? Perhaps we can draw some lessons from Abraham and Sarah’s life and faith journey to help us in our own journey from promise to fulfilment.

Have you wondered what it would have been like for Abraham and Sarah to wait and trust in God in the promises of God to make them into a great nation when they were confronted with their own barrenness? In a culture, where having children is a sign of blessing, fruitfulness and even a hope for the future, how could Abraham trust God when he was promised that he will become a great nation and be a blessing to others when we could not father a single child?
Genesis 12:1-3
¹The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
² “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

I believe that Abraham and Sarah believed and had faith and hope in the Promise Giver more than the reality of their hopeless circumstance. This made them start on a journey of hope, a long journey of leaving the familiar for the unfamiliar, of leaving behind the realities of their present circumstance and embracing the possibilities of their future in God. Theirs is not a passive hope but an active hope in the promises of God to take faith steps in obedience and keep believing and moving in the direction that God had showed them. Abraham did this when he was seventy five years when old age and circumstances dims hope in a natural possibility.
Genesis 12:4-5
⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. ⁵ He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

Yes, Abraham and Sarah did take matters into their own hands when they devised their own plans to have a child when it got wearisome while waiting. Ishmael was born through Abraham’s younger maidservant Hagar. However, we know that this human plan instead of waiting on God’s divine plan to unfold brought about much confusion, pain, heartache, division and jealousy. God is able to redeem this situation and does when He promises Hagar that he will make Ishmael too into a great nation. It is tempting to abandon belief in God when it gets weary waiting for God’s promises to unfold. But as this story reminds us, taking things into our hands leads us to compromising on God’s full plan for us. We need to wait in active hope until the promise of God comes to fulfilment and not give into the temptation to manipulate things. God is waiting for us to trust Him out over the natural circumstances so there is a real clear demonstration that the promise comes to pass only due to the supernatural hand of God!

Trusting God in difficult situations and persevering develops our faith, teaches us to be patient in hope and produces fruit in due season. Faith pleases God and faith is this unwavering certainty, unrelenting confidence and living with a real sense of expectancy that what we hope for in God is waiting for us ahead even when we don’t see it with our natural eyes. As Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Abraham had this kind of faith even in face of knowing that both Sarah and he were past child bearing age and their body was as good as dead.
Romans 4:18-21
¹⁸ Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” ¹⁹ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. ²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 

What are the promises that God has given you? Are you moving ahead in faith and actively hoping that God will come through for you? Very often we want to take charge and control instead of waiting on God to move supernaturally. Resist the urge to take charge, give up on your promise and give up on faith. Instead, as you keep moving in the direction that God is calling you to, ask God for strength to have unwavering faith in being certain about seeing the promises come to fulfilment. As Abraham did, you too can put your faith and hope in the Promise Giver more than the reality of your circumstance! God will come through for you as He always keeps His promises!