Seeing Reality

My words will certainly be fulfilled at the proper time.

Luke 1:20

These are the words the angel spoke to Zechariah after promising the old man that he would become a father. Zechariah could not quite believe it, but the Lord’s angel assured him that God would stand behind his word.

I understand Zechariah. He heard the message, but what he could see—that he was old and his wife was also well along in years—seemed to render it impossible.

In this case, what he saw was not what he got.

When God’s promise connects with faith, we have the ingredients necessary for a miracle. If our faith is a little slow in embracing a promise, God is patient and determined. He promises a reality that is hidden from our sight and calls our faith to grasp hold of his word. Then, when the time is right, that invisible promise becomes visible reality.

The time when Elizabeth could realistically hope to have a son was past. Ever since her days as a young bride, she had lived with an unfulfilled longing—one she at some point had probably accepted as hopeless—because her womb, as Sarah’s womb had been, was “as good as dead” (Romans 4:19). With Elizabeth’s womb dead, her hope died too.

What could be more final, more hopeless, than death? Yet for God, death is not a dead end. Death of a womb, death of a dream, death of a hope, or death of a body—in his hands any death is a prelude to resurrection. Death doesn’t have the last word.

Even when my faith is tiny, weak, and hidden, your promises, Lord, can bring it out of hiding. I embrace your promises, though they may seem as impossible as an aged, barren couple having a baby, because you are the God who can create new things out of nothing.

Difficulties and obstacles are God’s challenges to faith. When hindrances confront us in the path of duty, we are to recognize them as vessels for faith to fill with the fullness and all-sufficiency of Jesus.

A. B. Simpson(1843–1919), Canadian preacher, theologian, and author