BY THIS TIME NEXT YEAR

[Pastor Bayo Afolaranmi]

Dearly Beloved,

BY THIS TIME NEXT YEAR

"Then the LORD said, 'I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son'" (Genesis 18:10 NIV).

Wonders never end. Sarah and Abraham seemed to say when God told them that they would have their own child "about this time next year" (Genesis 17:15-16, 19-21; 18:10, 13-14). How would a man of hundred years impregnate a woman of ninety years? Naturally, it is impossible! Sarah laughed it off, while Abraham gave God another option to fulfil His promises for his (i.e. Abraham's) life (see Genesis 17:18; 18:12). However, God insisted that His promise of making Abraham the father of many nations would be fulfilled through the son that Sarah would bear to him, "for nothing is impossible with God" (Luke 1:37 NIV. See also Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:17, 27; Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27).

God did fulfil His promise! In Genesis 21:1-2, the Bible says, "Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him" (NIV). I want to emphasize two things in this passage:

a. God was gracious to Sarah: it was by the grace (the unmerited favour) of God that made God to remember her and fulfil the promise; and

b. At the very time: God fulfilled His promise for Abraham and Sarah at the very appointed time, not earlier, not later, but at the very time.

What are you also trusting God to do for you? Have you lost hope on it? Are you thinking of another means that God would do it for you? By this time next year, God would have done that thing for you in His own way, and at His very appointed time. God will be gracious to you and remember you for good. It may not even be up to a year. It may be less than a year, a month, a week, or even a day. Remember, the Lord spoke through prophet Elisha, "Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria" (2 Kings 7:1 NIV). The prophecy did happen less than a day. The officer who did not believe only saw it but never enjoyed it.

By this time next year, you also will have one or more things to testify about God's goodness in your life. Do you believe it?

In His service,

Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor).

NB

This message was first sent out on January 23, 2005.