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beyond our personal limits

Hebrews 11:11-12 (JDV)

Hebrews 11:11 By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age since she considered that the one who had promised was faithful.
Hebrews 11:12 Therefore, from one man – in fact, from one as good as dead – came offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the seashore.

beyond our personal limits

The First thing we need to know about Sarah was that her conceiving and giving birth to Isaac was a miracle. The text says that “she was unable” to conceive. Some women are fertile later in life, but Sarah was not one of them. In fact, Sarah had never conceived. But even if she had been able to conceive when she was young, our text says that she was unable to do so at that point because “she was past the age”. Her time had passed by. She missed the window of opportunity.

God challenges all of us to look beyond our personal limits because that is exactly where he wants to work. Paul told the Ephesians: “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works so that no one can boast. For we are his
workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them” (Ephesians 2:8-10 NET).

God starts at the limits of our workmanship, and then he adds his workmanship. When we get to the point where we realize that we can’t, then we are ready to start living by faith and receiving God’s power.