The Certainty of God’s Promise (Part 1)

The Certainty of God’s Promise (Part 1)

Hebrews 6:13-15 “ When God made a promise to Abraham because he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,  saying, “I will surely bless you and multiply you.”  And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise."

I was going to talk about his whole section of the Bible today, and then when I got writing, I seemed to spend a lot of time on these first few verses. I will talk about the other verses in this section tomorrow. The title of this section in the Bible is called “The Certainty of God’s Promise.” This sounded like something we could all use. I know a lot of people who are not doing so well physically right now. They feel discouraged because their bodies seem to be failing them. I also know a lot of people who have financial struggles right now and could really use some help. I know a lot of people who are struggling emotionally also. If you are struggling in any way, or you know someone who is struggling in any way, this episode is for you.

This verse begins by saying, “ When God made a promise to Abraham because he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,  saying, “I will surely bless you and multiply you.” God is saying this to Abraham, and He is also saying it to us. He is saying it to Abraham and all of his descendants. I know many of you are waiting for God to bless you, and some are waiting for him to multiply you. You can count on this promise by God. It says he swore by himself. This means it is an oath, and God always keeps His oaths. It is like a promise from your heavenly Father, and unlike anyone we know here on earth, our Heavenly Father does not lie, and He does not break His promises.

The next line definitely stood out to me. It says, “And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise.” When I read it, I wondered two things. First, is this the key that many of us are missing? Are we missing out because we are not waiting patiently? Second, how does one wait patiently when they have so much on the line? For instance, what if they are really sick and they are waiting for a healing? What if they have been waiting to get married and have children their whole life, and now it is looking like they might be too old to have children?

Did you know that Abraham had to wait a long time for his answer to this promise as well? God told Abraham and Sarah that He would make his descendants number more than the stars in the sky. He promised they would be the parents of nations. Now, remember, he promised this was when Abraham was already 75 years old and Sarah was 65 years old. Can you imagine how hard it must have been for them to believe in this promise?

Abraham and Sarah had to wait 25 years for this miracle to happen. Can you imagine how long that must have felt to them without knowing the plan? Each year, wondering if this was the year. Each month wondering if she would be pregnant. 12 months a year for 25 years is 300 months. If you have ever wanted a baby before, you know how devastating it is to hope each month that you are pregnant, and then you find out you aren’t. This happened to Sarah 300 times after God promised her that he would bless her and multiply her. I don’t know why she had to wait so long, but I am sure that was one of the first things she asked God when she got up there in heaven with Him. I am sure you are asking yourself the same things as well.

One thing we can start to tell ourselves in the waiting is that God isn’t looking upon us, and/or He does not favor us because it has been so long, and we don’t see the answers we wanted. We aren’t seeing the answers that we feel God promised us. This is a lie from the enemy. He wants you to believe that God isn’t looking out for you. He wants you to stop believing God will answer your prayers. He wants you to take matters into your own hands.

If you have already taken things into your own hands and messed it all up and are now worrying about whether God will still bless you, the answer is yes. Abraham and Sarah took things into their own hands as well. It is hard to wait 25 years for the answer to a promise. The enemy gets in your mind and tells you all these lies. He tells you God doesn’t like you. He tells you if God were going to do it, He would have already. He tells you that you don’t have to wait for God. You can do it on your own. He is very convincing, and we want to believe that we can do it on our own because waiting is hard.

Sarah persuaded Abraham to try to have a child with her maidservant. They were successful, and Abraham and the maidservant had a child together. However, this was Sarah’s plan, not God’s plan and Sarah got jealous of the maidservant and was not very nice to her after that. Do you see how we can mess things up when we decide to stop waiting on God and do it ourselves without God?

However, even though they tried to take things into their own hands, God still kept His promise. Twenty-five years after he promised to make Abraham and Sarah the parents of nations, Sarah was finally pregnant with Isaac. They finally had their first baby, Isaac. Now, if you know the story of Abraham and Isaac, you know that waiting 25 years for this baby was not the end of the story.  Several years later, Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac to the Lord. Can you imagine? God promised you would be the father of nations and then He only gives you one child, and then He asks you to sacrifice that child.

God required a lot of trust from Abraham. Abraham had to have trust over those 25 years that God was going to come through and give him a child. He had to have trust in God when God asked Him to sacrifice His only son. The verse above says that Abraham endured patiently.  I wonder how this was possible. I can’t imagine waiting 25 years for something. Although, if I really think about it, I did wait a long time for my family life to get better. Our house was filled with anger and violence for a long time. I prayed for things to get better, and when I think about it, I probably waited for a good 7-10 years for things to get better.

I definitely endured, but I can’t say that I endured patiently the whole time. Although it doesn’t say Abraham endured patiently the whole time, it just says having endured patiently. There was that time when he gave in to Sarah’s plan to sleep with her maidservant. If you are enduring a hardship right now, if you are sick, or you are struggling in one way or another I want to assure you that God sees you and that He will keep His promise to bless you and multiply you. It may take a long time, hopefully not 25 years, but He will keep His promises. He always does! It may not look like you think it will. For instance, I am sure when told she would be the mother of nations, Sarah probably expected to have more than one child. However, God’s ways are not our ways, and He had His own plan. However, it happens. Be on the lookout for the answers to your prayers and the blessings God has promised because they are coming! Tomorrow we will continue in this passage as there is more to say about “The Certainty of God’s Promise.”

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening to this episode. Lord, we thank you for all your promises, especially your promise to bless and multiply us. We thank you for keeping those promises no matter how long it takes. Lord, we ask that you give us patience and perseverance in the wait. We ask that you help us keep hope in your promises and give us the strength not to take matters into our own hands. Help give us the trust we need to wait on your timing Lord. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Just a reminder tomorrow is week 2 of this month’s mentoring theme of praise. If you have been struggling with anything, praise could be the answer you didn’t know you needed. There is a link in the show notes if you want to join us for mentoring tomorrow night. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow to continue our discussion on “The Certainty of God’s Promise.” Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in December 2023 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group or about these words please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is “My children, the world, and the people around you will try to steal that peace from you. Satan trembles when he sees you enter into My gift of peace. You can foil him in his efforts by living in that peace. And when you feel your knees shake and you tremble because of events and things around you grab deep within you because I am there and so peace is there. So, hope in me, trust in me, rely on me. Give up your self-sufficiency. I am strong, and I am within you.”

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