 All my church people said, praise the Lord. If you grew up in old school church like I did, but welcome back to Conversations with Carrie. I'm so happy to have you here. I felt like the Lord put this on my heart and it was something that I've been dealing with. So I was like, let me go and share with my people real quick. The Lord's just been dealing with me around hope. Hope gets my expectations up and then when my expectations are not met, I'm disappointed and I don't like feeling disappointed. So I figured, well, there's certain things I know that Lord's gonna do because he's promised or I just feel like let me just kind of follow along and not hope because if I don't hope, then I don't have to face the disappointment that comes along with it. But y'all, that's nowhere to no way to live. So I've been really studying hope and I wanted to come on here and share a little bit around what the Lord has revealed to me around hope. So first, I'm gonna take y'all old school and give y'all a little definition of hope. Hope is a desire and expectation centered in God for something to happen, even a feeling of trust. And I was like, well, Lord, I trust you, you know, and I realized though that my hope was starting to wane a little bit, not the same thing as faith because it's like, Lord, I know that you're capable, I know who you are, but I was just like, do I hope for it because if you don't do it, then I'm disappointed in you and you know, we're taught, don't be disappointed in the Lord, you know, or I think we're taught those things, but we're human and we have human reactions. So that's why I wanted to take you to the story of Sarah and Abraham because that is a perfect example of somebody who had human reactions and made some dumb decisions. So let me start from the beginning. Let me start from the very beginning so you understand like where, like a little more background about Sarah. So Abraham was given a promise from God and he was saying, God told him, listen, you're gonna be a father of many nations. Now keep in mind, Abraham and Sarah did not have any kids at this time, but God made him a promise. And so he was like, just leave your family. I need me, leave your father's land and I'm going to show you somewhere to go. I ain't gonna tell you exactly where. You'll find out along the way, I'll show you. And so Abraham's like, okay, I'm gonna be obedient to the Lord's call and I'm gonna get up and go where I'm supposed to go. And now Sarah at this time is 65 years old. So think about it, she's probably sitting her way, she's probably like, we got a comfortable life here. We good to go. And all of a sudden her husband's like, yeah, the Lord's called me out here. I don't know where though, but he's called me out. So come on, let's go. And her being a faithful, submitted wife, she was like, okay, let me go, I'm gonna go with my husband. I'm gonna believe what the Lord told him. And so much happens along the way. They face a famine. Sarah was fine, y'all, because at 65, Egyptians actually want to take her and make her wife a pharaoh. So you know, she was fine. 65, check, come on. That will water was doing all kinds of things. So, but anyway, so she's, you know, all this stuff that they're facing along the way. And at the same time, God is still promising Abraham, saying like, yes, I'm gonna make you a father of many nations. And for those of us who grew up in Children's Church, Abraham had many sons. Many sons had father Abraham, if you remember that. But so she's like, okay, Lord's making all these promises to my husband, but your girl is barren. They had not had kids. So at this point, she's probably like, she had probably given up hope that she was gonna have kids. And that's the Lord's promising her these things. She gets older and age. I think this was that maybe 25 years later at this point. And the Lord confirms his promise to Abraham. And he's like, yes, I am going to give you kids. I'm going to make you, I'm gonna provide an heir and your descendants will be more than the stars in the sky. But I'm sure she's probably like, okay, well, I'm gonna go ahead and help this situation out. And I think this is where Sarah gets the bad rep because we hear about her taking her maiden Hagar and giving her to Abraham to sleep with and saying like, oh, I'll just bear kids through her. And people are always like, oh my gosh, I cannot believe she would do that. That is such a dumb idea. I want you to think about it though. Sarah had been hoping for over 25 years 25 years, some of us can't even go a month. Some of us can't go a year, you know, 2020, jack things up. And while all of us are ready to just, you know, throw things out the window. She, this was 25 years at this point that she had been waiting and waiting and hoping. And you know what, actually, she probably was like, okay, it's probably gonna occur in some other way because it ain't coming through me. I'm old. She was looking at it with human eyes. And isn't that what we always do? We take our circumstance and we look at the reality of it, not thinking about the truth that God told us. God made a covenant with Abraham and told him that he was going to be a father of many nations. Sarah probably in her humanity was like, okay, well, you know, let me help this along. And I think we often, we often look at that like, oh gosh, she just didn't have enough faith. Y'all 25 years, the Lord told me not yet eight years ago concerning the husband, eight years. I was thinking, if I had known eight years, y'all probably would have acted a fool for at least a good six. I'm gonna keep it straight up with you, keep it 100. Because I'm like, if I had known it was gonna be this long and it still has not happened, but I still believe because I see things, I read the Bible and I believe what the Lord has said. But I'm just gonna keep it real. After 25 years, I'll be like, oh yeah, let me go on. And I've probably been trying to do it myself as well. And that's what Sarah did. And we can't fault her for that because she just, she was having a human reaction to a promise and keep in mind, the Lord had made the promise to Abraham. It's not like he had came and talked to her about anything yet. So at this point, so she was like, good, cool. Let me go get Hagar. Let me go have a baby, my husband have a baby with her. And of course all of us are like, that's completely crazy. But when you are desperate, when you are just at your last thread of hope, you're like, let me figure something out. And I believe that's where she was at. But you know what? God is so good because that's not where he left the story in. So either way goes, yes, she has a baby. Abraham has a baby with Hagar. Hagar and Sarah have some beef. Sarah's like, listen, get up, get up out of here because you acting like you over me now because Hagar was like, I had a baby, you didn't. So all of that, all of that. And even after Hagar has Ishmael or Ishmael, however you want to pronounce it, y'all know, do what you need to do. Look up how to pronounce the name. God still came through. And this is actually when God changes Sarah's name. And he changes her name and says in Genesis 17, verse 15, then God said to Abraham, as for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her. And indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her. I want you to keep in mind, this is after she's been like, okay, well, I'm done. Let me figure this out. I'm gonna go ahead and have Abraham at the time sleep with Hagar and we don't get a baby that way. The Lord speaks blessings over her and changes her name after that. Like that lets me know, that gives me encouragement, that gives me hope that I can do some dumb stuff but because the Lord is so good and he who promises faithful, he's still going to uphold his word. It's not about me. And again, she had a very human reaction. We've had very human reactions to a lot of stuff lately and the Lord is still faithful to fulfill his promise. And through that, even that, like, you know, Abraham was like, okay, well, cool. You know, Ishmael will be the, you know, the descendant says come from him. But God said in verse 19, but God said, no, come on. But God said, no. But Sarah, your wife will bear you a son and you should call his name Isaac and I will establish my covenant with him. If this doesn't make you have some hope, I don't know what does. And then it gets even better, y'all, it gets even better because in verse, let's see, in verse 18, excuse me, in chapter 18, God promises Isaac and he even confirms the promise of Isaac coming. And that's when some, I guess you could say some travelers, but it's actually, it was the angel of the Lord coming to visit and they're talking to, they're talking to Abraham. And then in verse nine, in chapter 18, verse nine, they said, where is Sarah, your wife? And he said, they're in the tent. And he says, I will surely return to you at this time next year and behold, Sarah, your wife will have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door. Sarah, I'm liking her more and more. She's probably like looking up the tent like, now say, what now? Now you say, I'm gonna do what? Sarah was at this point, I think Sarah was probably 89 because then they tell her the next year that she's gonna have a baby. So, and she had a baby at 90. So she's probably 89 years old. Now I want you to think about this. You were being told that at 89 years old, you're gonna have a baby. And so Sarah laughed to herself saying, in verse 12, laughed to herself saying, after I've become old, shall I have pleasure? My Lord being old also. And the Lord said to Abraham, why does Sarah laugh? Shall I indeed bear a child when I am so old? Is anything too difficult for the Lord? I love that. Is anything too difficult for the Lord? Really? Being for something. If you are praying for something, believing in God for something, for what, throw your expectations out the window because God can do it in His way and in His timing. For me, it's like, okay, there's so much. Lord, just bless me with a new job. There's a lot that has happened. So I know that He's working in my life. I know that He's working behind the scenes, even when I can't see it. And so even when I feel like, gosh, Lord, I'm afraid to hope because I don't want to be disappointed, He will send confirmation. He will provide knowledge for you to know. Like, I have not forgotten about you, my dear daughter, my dear son. I still have wonderful things planned for you. If you just have faith, if you continue to trust, just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not happening. So even here, Sarah was like, she's being told from the Lord like, hey, she's overhearing it. Like, you're going to have a child. And she's still like, ha. And Lord's like, why are you laughing? Didn't I just say that you was going to have a child? Is anything too hard for the Lord? I mean, come on. I'm like, Lord, come talk to me because Lord knows I didn't kind of been like, nah, that's probably not going to happen. And then Lord will send confirmation. And that's what I want this to be for you today. I want you to look at this as confirmation that Lord is going to do what He said He would do. He is not a man that He should lie. He is going to do what He said He would do. I want to give you some encouragement. As I've been studying hope, and I've been like, Lord, you're going to have to help me with this because sometimes I feel like it's a little harder than what I imagined. It's been a longer wait. A lot has happened in my life recently, but he's so good because there's so many wonderful things to be grateful for. But I want you to think about hope. And he gave me Romans 1513, and it says, I pray that God, the source of hope, feel you completely with joy and peace because you trust Him, then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. So as I read that, I was like, okay, what is that telling me about hope? That's telling me that one hope comes from God. I cannot have it. I always looked at it as like, well, I need to have hope. I need to have hope. No, hope comes from God. Enjoy and peace accompany hope. So when I allow myself to hope, I can actually have joy and peace about my situation. I can actually walk in contentment. And then the Holy Spirit's power is required for confident hope. So again, the Lord sent His helper. He sent His helper to provide you with help in having hope. He doesn't even leave it up to us to try to have this amazing hope. He says, I have provided a helper for you to help you have confident hope. So you need God's spirit living inside of you. It's not something that you can get on your own. You have to read the scripture and let that speak to you. Because also in Romans 15, the Lord says such things were written in the scripture long ago to teach us and the scripture gives us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently. And that's exactly what the story of Sarah did. I love that she had very human reactions. I love that she was straight up like, you know what, she did some, made some dumb decisions like, oh, I'm gonna go ahead and fix this myself. Because if I need a baby and I want Abraham to have a baby then I'm gonna need to do it my way. And the Lord still blessed her, changed her name afterwards, made a promise to her and then prod her the child that she so desired when she was freaking 90 years old. And I think some people write these stories off as like, oh, well, that's just, that's what the Lord did back in the Old Testament. No, the Lord can do that in your life right now, right here, today if you would just believe and allow yourself to have hope. So I'm gonna pray for us because sometimes we need the hope. Lord, some things did not happen for us that we thought were gonna happen. But Father, I ask that you just bless us and infuse us with new hope, with hope that just surpasses anything that we can imagine, Lord, it's your words as you are able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all we could dare ask, think, or imagine. So Lord, we are standing in hope today. We hope that you are going to do what you said that you were going to do because we know that he who promises faithful. And we just thank you, we thank you right now for the manifestation of the promise in our lives. So I ask that you are encouraged today. Again, I wrote a short story about this over on carryly.com. Please check it out and be sure to like and subscribe. Be blessed.