A Promise Is A Promise

When God gives a promise then it is a certainty that he will fulfil it. Our heads know this, but our hearts can doubt, especially if the time period involved stretches out. In GENESIS Ch 15 Abram - the man of faith - was promised a son and in Ch 22 the boy Isaac was born in fulfilment of this promise. However, there are 6 Chapters in between which allude to elapsed time and a doubting of God by Abram/Abraham and his wife.

• When God promises He will deliver, but the timing is His.
  
  
• It is normal to doubt, okay to question, but not appropriate to organise things for God like Abram did in Ch 16.
  
  
• Abram and his wife displayed a lack of faith by believing they had to assist God. To have a child through another woman was never God's intention.
  
  
• In GENESIS Ch 22 v 2 God refers to Isaac as Abrahams "only son". God did not recognise Ishmael as Abrahams because he wasn't the fulfilment of the promise given.

HEBREWS Ch 11 v 1 gives us the definition of faith. It says that "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see". The God of the Bible is the God of the impossible. When there is a promise and we cannot see how it can come about, this is when God delights in fulfilling what He has said. If we could perform our own miracles then we would have no need of a relationship with God.