Lilac Ministries

Bible Study Lessons

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Scripture: Genesis 21:1-7

Topic: God's Blessing Upon Sarah

We close this month’s Bible Study of Sarai/Sarah with God answering her prayer for children. Sarah was 90 years old when this blessed event happened! Even though God Himself had promised to bless Abraham some 25 years earlier, we can imagine that bearing a child was a lifelong prayer for Sarah.

In discussing this blessing, we considered that sometimes we don’t have a promise from God that our deepest prayers will be answered in a way we’d like. It might then be true that the pursuit of such a prayer-answer makes our faith even stronger than the faith of those who have received such a direct promise from God!

Another point we discussed is the idea that just because a “big” prayer is answered, everything is solved! If you’ve had children, you know all the work and love and frustration they bring into a home. Now - imagine starting with a baby at 90 YEARS OLD! Oh my!

Last week we spoke about the prayers we’ve waited a long time to have answered. I do hope the Lord will answer all of them . . . even by the end of this year! I hope all the more that each of us will be looking for God’s hand in our everyday life. We heard a story at our Bible Study about a son-in-law who worked all day, drove almost four hours and began to help build a roof starting at 10:00 at night, in the rain. That’s a God-ordered blessing. That’s the sort of thing we need to praise Him for as we wait upon our other prayers.

When Sarah and Abraham’s son was born, they named him Isaac, which means “he laughs.” You’ll recall that both Abraham and Sarah laughed at how ridiculous the idea was that they would be parents at such an old age. Perhaps it was that laughter they recalled. Perhaps it was the laughter of a new baby. Perhaps - just perhaps - it was the laughter sprung from the joy of being blessed beyond imagination. May we all experience just such a laughter and join one another in praising God for it.