Gracious and Faithful

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

GRACIOUS AND FAITHFUL

Gen 21:1-5

21:1 Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

NIV

We see two of the character traits of God within this portion of the text: graciousness and faithfulness to his promise. This was not an ordinary act of man, because Abraham was one hundred years old and Sarah was well beyond the age of childbearing. If left alone, without the intervention of God, there would have been no child born to Sarah. This gives us one example to live by, knowing there are times in our lives when we need the intervention of God with his graciousness and faithfulness to his promise. So often we think we can do it, that we have the ability, we educated ourselves, we worked at our careers, professions, or employment trying to make our way in life, making an effort to aim for the golden ticket for retirement. We also know that even though we might try to make our plans, God orders our footsteps. We are confident Abraham and Sarah tried many times to have a child but she was barren, never bearing a child for her husband, and then at their old age, when it is not longer even possible, God makes it happen. God ordered their footsteps, although Abraham had already been walking in step with God, leaving his home and family to travel to a place where God directed them. God is gracious to them and to us. Sending Jesus to do that which we could not do, save ourselves from death because of our sins. Jesus is the grace of God and the fulfillment of his promise. But God's graciousness did not stop there, for every day we continue to breathe, is an act of his graciousness. But he also acts, and intervenes in our lives at times when we least expect, but have desired and where we may not have any of the human abilities to achieve on our own. However, is that not the way of God. If Sarah had borne a son to Abraham in a natural way, she might have become prideful, fulfilling her responsibility to produce an heir for her husband. But she could not and did not until God intervened and she knew it was God, for she and Abraham heard the words, the promise of having a son, and even his name of Isaac. Sarah could not boast of herself but only boast about God, which we will see later. We understand this and make every effort not to boast in ourselves, but to always give God all the credit for who we are, and what we are doing. He may intervene in different ways for each of us, but we know and expect to see God working in and on behalf of our lives, blessing us, even though we are not worthy. He is always gracious toward us; he has always fulfilled his promise to us over the years. God is faithful, we can trust him completely to finish the work in our lives in both the spiritual and physical. He brings us along on the path he has planned for us, growing our knowledge of him, building us up into his temple, a living stone, placed just where he wants us. He grows our understanding in his ways, as the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth. He feeds us his food, solid spiritual food for our souls. He heals our bodies so we can serve him. He sustains our lives so we can continue to do his bidding all the days of our lives. As with Abraham and Sarah, he was their source, he is our source for doing the supernatural beyond our natural abilities. Thank you, Lord, for being gracious and faithful to your promise.