Too Hard? - The One Year Praying through the Bible for Your Kids

The LORD kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would. Genesis 21:1-2

WHEN WE MEET SARAH in the Scriptures, she seems to be defined by her emptiness. “But Sarai was unable to become pregnant and had no children” (Genesis 11:30). Her situation appears even more poignant when we read that God had promised to give her husband descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven (Genesis 15:5), descendants who would come from a son born to her. This promise seemed to be an impossibility.

Sarah knew her own body—that it was worn out and dried up. The idea of becoming pregnant was laughable. And so she was amused when she heard God say that life would emerge from her lifeless womb. Hearing Sarah’s laughter of unbelief, God asked her, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14). Sarah had been focused on whether it was too hard for her and Abraham, and there was no question it was. But the Lord turned to her with the more important question, which was, “Can I do it?” And of course he could.

Isaac was born so that, by a miraculous work of God, “a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them” (Hebrews 11:12). In fact, God still accomplishes the impossible, creating life out of death apart from human effort. “God . . . when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. . . . And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:4-5, 8, ESV).

Lord, sometimes the growth and change we want to see in ________ seem impossible, even laughable. We need faith to keep believing that what is impossible in human terms is not too hard for you. Indeed, our hopes for ourselves and for ________ are grounded in the reality that you still accomplish the impossible. You create life out of death, which is not dependent upon human effort. Nothing is too hard for you!