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Sarcastic Saint Sarah might be your saint of choice if you’ve ever grown tired of waiting for a word from God to come to pass. If you’re prone to cynicism when you hear more and more unfulfilled prophecies, prayers and promises piling up. If a silent laugh more than an amen comes surprisingly out of your mouth quicker than you can self edit. If this is your growing posture towards pious possibilities than you are probably suffering from perseverance fatigue, a weary heart, you’ve got a big dose of the proverbial ‘faint of the faithful’.

Abraham’s barren wife grew tired like only a Pentecostal charismatic church goers could grow tired of yet another word about what will be…that hasn’t been yet. 

In Genesis 18 her husband and her were kicking it in the shade on a hot day, doing some nom nom on yogurt and sliced meats when they we’re visited by three men who went by the name: “da Lord”. 

“Where is Sarah, your wife?” the visitors asked.

“She’s inside the tent,” Abraham replied. Then one of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!”

Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?”

Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.” But the LORD said, “No, you did laugh.”  (Gen 18)

This is one place in the Bible that shows me that these are not made up words, because a religious writer wouldn’t be so honest about the time the saints called God a liar. Yes, this is truthful scripture, so true it records even the deep disillusionment of  the faithful. 

Sarah waited almost 70 years for her word to come to pass. That’s a long time to keep believing that word was a God word. It’s hard to maintain enthusiasm when life is perpetually contradicting your sacred promise. Being barren and believing is a contradiction of the heart and body. Your mind is trying to hold onto a reality that your womb is denying. It’s the kind of place where you can end up surrendering to the thought that God could or can…but won’t….for you. 

It’s faith….kinda, but that’s ok, it’s often what we can only muster. It’s a seed from which something can be born, within it…is the power to conceive. 

“By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.” (Hebrews 11:11)

Sarah received the gift of faith, as we all do…and it saved her. 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” -Eph 2:8

I don’t know what you are facing or how many years you’ve been waiting but I know God will revisit you and the promise again and again. He comes walking into your life and you will be caught laughing in a moment of serving others…and the pain of you’re barrenness will be embraced by the hint of His promise. God doesn’t forget…us…or His goodness. He is God, and He doesn’t lie.

Hope does not disappoint (Romans 5:5)