No Matter How Old

 DEVOTION

TO HEBREWS

NO MATTER HOW OLD

Heb 11:11-12

11 By faith Abraham, even though he was past age — and Sarah herself was barren — was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

NIV

What is impossible with man, is always possible with God. The record reflects that is would have been impossible for both of them to become a parent, although it could have been possible for Abraham to still be able to father a child. We know the story about Hagar and Ishmael in an attempt to fulfill the promise of God through human means. We know how that ended badly for the ages to come. However, the story is about Abraham and Sarah, having one son, Isaac, who fathered Esau and Jacob, with a story of their own, but God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, and we know from twelve sons many more and more until Abraham’s descendants became as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. Just look what God did through two old people, and it was because Abraham had faith. We now live in a culture of youth, of the young and the strong, those who can move mountains with their bare hands. They have, including us when we were young, devised a system so that at a certain age, when our bodies are getting weaker, our hair has either become grey, or completely missing and we are told to step aside, go retire somewhere and just sit and wait to die. However, what happens if we are people of Faith? What happens if God is not finished with us? He did not fulfill his promise to Abraham until he was old, past the age of anything good, and if he lived in our era, he might have been put in a retirement home. Therefore, no matter what age we are, even if we are among the aging, the one with grey hair, wrinkled skin, maybe even weak ears and eyes, and weak arms, God is as strong and as powerful as he has always been, and He is able to fulfill his promise in us and use us to do something that would have been impossible for us to do. All we need is to have faith. We will not go silently into the night, we will continue to live by faith, looking forward to the hand of God working miraculously through us until our last breath. After all, although we may not have the physical DNA of Abraham in us, some of us may, we are descendants through faith. Abraham’s faith in God was counted onto him as righteousness, while our faith in Jesus is counted unto us as righteousness, so we continue to live by faith, knowing nothing is impossible for God, no matter how old we are.