Nervous Laughter

Gen18:14a "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

This is clearly a rhetorical question. I mean, God just got done telling Abram: "I am God almighty." Now the question: "Since I am God almighty, is anything too hard for Me?" The obvious answer: "No.". Even though Abraham was 99 years old, and even though Sarah had never been able to have kids and now was 90, I suppose Abraham and Sarah both could have said: "Well, God, you are stretching Your abilities a little, aren't You?" I mean they might as well have said it. When God told Abraham that he was going to have a child through Sarah he laughed. (Gen.17:17) And when Sarah heard that she was going to have a baby she laughed (v12). That is why God responded: "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

I wonder what I laugh at? It could be nervous laughter. It could be the laughter of doubt. It could be laughter because I think that something is preposterous. But when God is involved, nervousness, doubt and preposterous thoughts need to be eliminated. Why? "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" If I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God is working, that God is moving, that God is clearly directing then any laughter that might come out of my mouth needs to be squelched.

I think that this happens most often for me when my pastor, Randy, says: "Where God guides, He provides." I know that this is true. I know that this is a fact. We have seen it so many times in the past that we should not doubt it…but me, in my humanness, in my lack of faith sometimes find myself laughing and saying: "Really?" It is at those times I need to come back to this statement: "I am God almighty, nothing is too hard for Me."

It may be that I am not doubting God but I am doubting me. Or I am doubting others. I mean, how do we know that it is God at work? How do we know that it is God guiding? Could it be that it may be our own wishful thinking? How do I discern between God's ways and my ways?

I think that the best way to know is how Abraham knew. God's word came to him. God spoke to him. I mean how could Abraham doubt God when the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre (v1)? And it seems that God came to him in the form of three men Kind of interesting…three. Could it have been the trinity? I don't know, that just popped in my head. Anyway, God spoke through these three guys, one of whom was clearly God. How do I know? Because verse 10 said "And He said, 'I will certainly return to you, according to the time of life and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.".

Now we don't get these visitations today, but God has given us something just as powerful: His word and His Holy Spirit. When the two mesh, we better move. We better not laugh. We better know that God has spoken and no matter what, no matter how impossible the task, nothing is too difficult for Him.