Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, September 19, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
I hadn’t realized that Sarai wasn’t the only one who laughed at God’s promise. In verse 17, before Sarai laughs in chapter 18, it says “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, ‘Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’” Is there any other appropriate response to being told you’re going to be a dad at 100 years old when your wife is 90? It’s not like Abram wasn’t a man of faith. He’d listened to God with incredible trust and obedience from the moment God told him to leave everything he knew and set out for Canaan in Genesis 12. Through several misadventures, God had sustained him and Sarai and their household. But this… well this was just too ridiculous to contemplate, and so Abram busted out laughing. And in spite of this, God delivered.
I recently asked God for something I knew was impossible. Something that I believed absolutely didn’t exist. I put it out there, because my friends and recovery fellows encouraged me to, but I told God point blank, “I know this will never happen for me. It’s not possible.” And God just grinned at me and said, “Watch me.” Within a month, I received the most incredible, precious gift of exactly what I had been hoping for. Now, I’m not saying that you automatically get whatever you pray for. Absolutely not. I’m just saying that when God makes a promise—even a ridiculous one—you’d better believe God is going to keep it one way or another.
When has God shown up in my life with a gift I hadn’t believed possible?
![Jonah 1:1-17; 3:1-10 [4:1-11], Jonah and God’s Mercy](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b39b61ab48de92d991a40a/6bbb490e-4992-4659-a8be-02d8397d68af/24-11-10.jpg)
