Women of Faith

Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me– Genesis 21:6

Sarah did not have an easy life. Her husband Abraham traveled as a nomad, following God’s leadership, until his death. She therefore had no permanent place, plot, or structure where she could make a home and call it her own.

More difficult still, she had been unable to have children with her husband Abraham. After years and years of waiting and hoping and praying, they were still a barren couple. Finally, as she and her husband became very advanced in years, God did appear and promised Abraham that Sarah would conceive and bare him a son.

By this time, and especially at this age, the idea was so ludicrous and unthinkable to Sarah that she laughed in unbelief at the promise of the Lord, when it was delivered (Genesis 18:9-15). Yet the book of Hebrews tells us that her settled conviction became one of trust in the Lord and in His promise:

“Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised” (11:11).

When God, in His own good timing, did eventually bless her to conceive, Sarah’s testimony is a sweet one: “God hath made me to laugh.” The laugh of unbelief had been turned into a laugh of overflowing, uncontainable joy.

May our settled conviction, like Sarah's be one of faith in God -- no matter what the obstacles. Then our testimony, like Sarah’s, will be of God's perfect deliverance and irrepressible joy.